Cauliflower Soup

I had a HUGE head of cauliflower that I needed to use and since Jeremy and I were hoping to have a more-or-less vegetarian dinner, I didn't want to just roast it or mash it as that didn't seem substantial enough for a dinner.  Instead, I made a nice pot of soup and roasted some of the pieces to add some texture.

All together this took a little over an hour to make but for a good bit of that time the soup was just simmering.  It was a very tasty soup and I'm really looking forward to the leftovers we have.

I made a loaf of bread to go along with this.  As I had some leftover barley from a few nights ago, I made a whole grain bread -- it was partially whole wheat and had barley throughout.  It was slightly sweet and very chewy.  Overall, it was a delicious meal.

It's amazing how creamy this soup was despite the fact that there isn't a drop of cream or a bit of cheese in it. The pureed potatoes and cauliflower gave it a wonderful texture.  Overall, a very delicious soup with a great cauliflower flavor.

Recipe:
1 large head of cauliflower (the head weighed roughly 3 1/2 pounds when I started)
4 large white potatoes (about 2 1/2 - 3 c. once I diced them)
approx. 6 cups chicken stock
1 large onion, chopped
3 stalks celery, chopped into 4 inch pieces
1 pinch crushed red pepper flake
1 tbs. rosemary, minced
2 bay leaves
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. minced fresh parsley

1. Preheat oven to 375.
2. Chop the cauliflower into bite-sized pieces.  Place about 3 1/2 cups of cauliflower florets on a baking sheet.  Sprinkle with salt and pepper and drizzle with olive oil.  Mix to combine.  Place in oven and cook for approx. 20 minutes until slightly brown and tender.  Mix occasionally while it's cooking.  When it's done just set it to the side until the soup is at step 8.
3. Heat a large soup pot over medium heat.  Add 2 tbs. olive oil.  Add the onion, celery, and crushed red pepper flake.  Saute until the onion begins to soften.
4. Add the cauliflower, potatoes, bay leaves, and rosemary.  Add chicken stock until the veggies are almost covered.
5. Cover the pot and bring to a boil.  Reduce heat to maintain a strong simmer until the veggies are tender, about 20-25 minutes.
6. Turn off heat, remove bay leaves and celery, and allow soup to cool for 5-10 minutes with the lid off.
7. Puree in a blender, in batches if necessary.
8. Return soup to pot.  Add roasted cauliflower, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.

Grilled Chicken Tacos with Guacamole and Cilantro Rice and Beans

Because of Jeremy's love of avocados, I decided to make some guacamole.  Figuring I wanted the guacamole to shine, I made some simple grilled chicken to chop up for a taco.  It was delicious.  This guacamole would be good on pretty much anything though and I will certainly be making it again. :)

I had some beans leftover from the black bean and barley veggie burgers I made a couple night ago.  So after I cooked the rice, I just threw the beans in until they were heated through.  It made a yummy side dish for the tacos - although Jeremy put the rice and beans in his taco making it into a small burrito.

We used whole wheat flour tortillas for this.  Jeremy put lettuce in his taco in addition to the chicken, guacamole, and rice and beans.  I put lettuce, tomato, chicken, and guacamole.  But these are really versatile and can adapt to whatever taco toppings you like.

This was an incredibly fast dinner.  Everything was finished in the roughly 20-25 minutes it took to cook the rice.  I started the rice, then cleaned, seasoned, and began grilling the chicken.  While the chicken was cooking I made the guacamole.  Everything was done right on time.  This made extra chicken, rice and beans, and guacamole.  I know Jeremy is looking forward to the leftovers for tomorrow.

Recipe:
Chicken:
2 chicken breasts, butterflied
salt
pepper
chili powder

1. Heat a grill pan over medium-high heat and lightly oil the pan with vegetable oil.
2. Season the chicken with the salt, pepper, and chili powder.
3. Grill the chicken 3-4 minutes per side until cooked through.

Rice:
2 c. chicken stock
1 c. rice
2 tbs. margarine
1 tbs. dried parsley flakes
1 tsp. dried cilantro
1 1/2 c. cooked black beans

1. Put chicken stock, margarine, parsley, and cilantro in a small sauce pan.  Bring to a boil.
2. Add rice and reduce heat to a simmer.  Simmer for 15-18 minutes until liquid is absorbed.
3. Turn off the heat and add the black beans.  Stir to combine.  Cover until ready to serve.  (The heat from the rice will heat the beans through.)

Guacamole:
2 avocados
2 medium tomatoes, diced
1/3 c. minced onion
juice of 2 limes
1/2 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. ground cumin

1. Place avocado flesh in a bowl.  Add juice of the limes to prevent browning.  Mash with a fork.
2. Add remaining ingredients and mix well to combine.

Spinach and Cheese Manicotti

So tonight Jeremy made dinner.  Since I had a late class, I wrote the recipe down this morning and he had the manicotti in the oven when I got home.  Unfortunately, since he cooked, I have to do the dishes tonight...

We've made this several times and it's relatively easy.  I use part-skim ricotta and this is fairly healthy thanks to the good amount of spinach and the veggies in the pasta sauce.  I really wish I could find a whole-wheat manicotti but so far no luck.  So the few times when we have this we have regular pasta.

I've managed to eliminate the need to cook the pasta before it goes in the oven.  There is enough liquid in the filling and the sauce to fully cook the manicotti.  This makes it easier to stuff them before they go in the oven and doesn't at all change how they taste.

Apart from the amount of time that this spends in the oven, it's a really quick dish to make.  As long as I have time to be at home while this is cooking, I usually get a good amount of work done.  And it's a very tasty dish.

Recipe:
7 manicotti tubes (half a box)
16 oz. ricotta
1/3 c. parmesan cheese
2 c. frozen chopped spinach
1 tbs. minced garlic
1/2 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. black pepper
1 pinch crushed red pepper flake
1 1/2 - 2 c. spaghetti sauce

1. Preheat oven to 350. Defrost the spinach by microwaving for 5 minutes.  Let sit until it's cool enough to handle.  Squeeze the liquid out.
2. Mix all the ingredients except the manicotti tubes and the spaghetti sauce in a bowl until thoroughly combined.
3. Spread 1/2 c. spaghetti sauce in the bottom of an 8x8 inch glass baking dish.  Stuff each manicotti tube with filling until full and arrange in the baking dish. (You can just put the extra filling into the dish around the manicotti and eat it later... it's tasty outside of the tubes too.)
4. Cover with remaining spaghetti sauce (the manicotti don't need to be swimming, just mostly covered - this can vary depending on the exact size and contours of the baking dish).
5. Cover with foil and bake for 1 hr until the pasta is tender. (Don't use a metal baking dish and foil... this can create a nasty reaction if the tomato sauce touches a metal pan and the foil... but this won't happen if you use a glass baking dish.)

Black Bean and Barley Veggie Burgers

Before tonight I'd never had a veggie burger... ever.  I've always been wary of ordering one at a random restaurant since I hear so many bad things about veggie burgers.  That being said, I love beans and barley so I figured they couldn't be that bad if they had plenty of flavor and stayed moist.  So I decided to give them a try.  These were definitely a success.  And I'll be eating plenty more veggie burgers in the future. :)

My Burgers

Continuing with my quest to eliminate as much sodium as possible, I cooked dried beans so that they didn't add a lot of sodium (I actually added no salt to the beans as they were cooking).  I also cooked the barley without adding any salt.  This could certainly be made with canned beans if you don't want to go to all the trouble of soaking and cooking the beans.

Overall, this meal took just under 2 hours to make, start to finish.  But the first almost hour and a half was spent cooking the beans and barley so actually making the burgers was pretty quick and easy.  I used whole wheat buns and topped these with sliced avocado (drizzled with lime juice to keep it from turning brown), tomato (on mine), and onions (on Jeremy's). 

Jeremy's Burgers

I took the extra step of toasting the buns in the oven since I already had the burgers in the oven to bake.  This recipe made 5 burgers so we have 1 left over for another meal.  This was definitely an easy recipe. Once everything was mixed it just took a few minutes in the oven and we were eating.  I am very pleased with the results. :) 

Jeremy usually isn't a fan of barley but he loved these.  I'm not sure what he expected but he was very happy with them and even finished off my second burger when I got full.  He said they just tasted like he was eating something mexican and was very happy that they were still moist.  The only issue is that they fell apart a little while we were eating them so I'll have to work on binding them a bit more. But they were great!  I will definitely be making these again.  (I'll probably even work with different beans and seasonings to change it up!)

The Burgers After Baking

Recipe:

1 1/2 c. black beans, divided

3/4 c. cooked pearl barley

1 egg

1 tbs. olive oil

1 tbs. dried parsley

1/4 onion, minced

3 cloves garlic, minced

1 tbs. ground cumin

3/4 tsp. cayenne pepper

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. black pepper

1/4 c. crushed tortilla chips

1/4 c. Italian style breadcrumbs

1. Preheat oven to 475.

2. Place 3/4 c. black beans in a large bowl and mash with a potato masher until smooth.  Add the rest of the ingredients and mix with a spatula until fully combined.

3. Spray a baking sheet with cooking spray.

4. Using a 1/2 c. measuring cup, portion out the mixture, forming them into 1/2" thick patties.

5. Spray the tops of the burgers with cooking spray.

6. Bake for 20 minutes until slightly crisp on top.

7. Serve topped with your choice of toppings. 

Pan-Seared Chicken and Asparagus Linguine Alfredo

I love Spring.  As the season gets rolling, the grocery stores suddenly start bursting with wonderful produce.  Jeremy found some great strawberries to add to cereal and I found some great asparagus.  Asparagus is one of Jeremy's favorite veggies so whenever it looks good and is a reasonable price, I make sure I buy some and incorporate it into dinner.

An alfredo sauce is one of my standbys.  I almost always have the ingredients needed for it and it's quick and delicious.  I make mine with skim milk as I can't justify the heavy cream called for in most recipes.  The addition of just a little flour thickens it up without all the extra fat.

This came together really quickly.  I was very pleased because the chicken stayed nice and moist and the asparagus was fantastic.  We have a bit of leftover linguine and asparagus that I'm sure Jeremy will be happy to polish off tomorrow.

As usual, I had whole wheat pasta on hand so that's what I used for this recipe.  It was very tasty - probably one of the best alfredo sauces I've made.  I've also made this using grilled chicken - it's very tasty too - but tonight I felt like pan-searing the flour-coated chicken.

The timing on this isn't too difficult... start the chicken slightly before you start the pasta water.  I added the pasta to the water about the same time I was removing the chicken from the pan.  Then I started the sauce and was cooking the sauce while the asparagus and pasta were cooking.

Recipe:
1 large (or 2 small) chicken breast, butterflied
salt and pepper to taste
1/4 c. AP flour (for dredging)
1/2 tsp. garlic powder
2 pinches of crushed red pepper flake (divided)
1 bunch asparagus (about 1 lb.), cut into 2 inch pieces
8 oz. whole wheat linguine
1 c. skim milk
1/2 c. chicken stock
2 tbs. AP flour
3-4 cloves garlic, minced
1/2 tbs. dried parsley flakes
1/2 c. parmesan cheese
salt and pepper to taste

1. Place the 1/4 c. flour in a shallow bowl for dredging. Salt and pepper the chicken to taste and sprinkle the garlic powder over both sides of the chicken. Dredge in flour so coated on both sides.
2. Heat a large skillet over medium-high heat.  Add 2 tbs. olive oil and a pinch of crushed red pepper.  Add chicken to the pan and sear on both sides until cooked through.  When chicken is finished, wrap it in foil and place in a 200 degree oven to keep warm.
3. While chicken is cooking, bring a large pot of water to a boil.  Add linguine.
4. Mix milk, chicken stock, and 2 tbs. flour in a bowl.  In skillet (the same one you cooked the chicken in), add one tbs. of olive oil, garlic, and a pinch of crushed red pepper flake. Cook for 1-2 minutes.  Add milk mixture and reduce heat to medium-low.  Whisk occasionally to pick up any bits stuck to the pan.  When the sauce begins to thicken, add the parmesan, parsley, and salt and pepper to taste.
4. Three to four minutes before the pasta is done add the asparagus to the boiling water. When asparagus and pasta are both cooked, drain.
5. Add pasta and asparagus to the sauce.
6. Serve topped with the chicken.

Moroccan-ish Couscous

I've blogged about this recipe before but when making it again last night, I realized that I'm usually far more heavy-handed in my seasonings than the original recipe called for.  So I've fixed that.  The seasonings in this are really versatile so you can add or take out anything you don't like.  One warning - turmeric is VERY yellow... I have several cooking spoons (and sadly one sweater) that are permanently stained.  So be careful not to get this on anything you like too much if you'd be upset that it changed color. :)

Tonight I used dried chickpeas that I cooked yesterday.  I'm trying to stop using canned beans because of their high sodium content (same goes for canned tomatoes - at least until I can find a no-sodium variety... but until I use up what I currently have, I'm still using canned tomatoes).  This step just takes a little planning ahead but it made me feel really good to use my own beans instead of worrying about how much sodium was getting into my food because of the canning process.

Between the jambalaya from last night and this dish tonight, our fridge is almost bursting with leftovers (and since our weekly shopping trip was yesterday, it's even fuller... now I'll just have to cook and eat to make space).  This recipe gave us two servings for dinner tonight and five leftover containers.  And since I love this recipe so much, I'm always excited to have leftovers to eat for a few days.

Today I made this using water instead of chicken stock - which made it entirely vegan.  I don't think it lost any flavor at all so I will probably start making it this way in the future.  Less sodium, cheaper, and no loss in flavor - yes please! :)

Jeremy and I have really been cutting back on our meat consumption recently.  While I used to have to work to find meatless meals that he was still satisfied with, it's getting much easier and now even he is saying that since we had meat yesterday we don't need it today.  He says I've just gotten better at finding meat-free but filling meals... but whatever the case, it's good to know we're eating nice and healthy.

Recipe:
6 stalks celery, diced
2 (medium) green bell peppers, diced
1 large onion, diced
3 cloves garlic, minced
2 cans (15 oz) diced tomatoes
3 tbs. tomato paste
3 c. cooked chickpeas (recipe below) (or 2 cans, drained and rinsed)
1 c. water
2 bay leaves
1/4 tsp. allspice
2 tbs. ground cumin
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
1/2 tsp. dried thyme
3 tbs. minced fresh parsley
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/2 tsp. paprika
3 tbs. curry powder
1/2 tsp. ground turmeric
salt and pepper to taste

2 c. couscous
2 1/2 c. water
1/4 c. olive oil

1. Heat a pot over medium heat. Add olive oil to coat the bottom. Add the celery, bell peppers, and onions and saute for 3-4 minutes. Add garlic and saute another 1-2 minutes. Add the tomatoes, tomato paste, spices, and water. Stir and bring to a simmer. Let simmer for 10-20 minutes until veggies are becoming tender, stirring occasionally.
2. Add chickpeas and stir to combine. Continue to simmer another 10-15 minutes until veggies are tender. 
3. While the veggies are simmering (just after you add the chickpeas) and the dish is close to done, bring the water for the couscous to a boil in a separate pot. Add the olive oil and couscous and stir. Bring the couscous back to a boil for 1 minute then turn off the heat. Let the couscous sit with the lid on for 5 minutes until all liquid is absorbed.


Chickpeas
1 1/2 c. dried chickpeas
12 c. water, divided


1. Place chickpeas in a large bowl and cover with 6 cups of water. Let soak for 8 hours to overnight.
2. Drain and rinse the chickpeas and place in a large saucepan.
3. Add remaining 6 cups of water and bring to a boil over high heat. 
4. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for 45-60 minutes until desired tenderness is reached. (I cooked them until they mashed easily between my fingers and they were no longer grainy when bitten.) 

Sausage and Chicken Jambalaya

Weekends are great for me... when I don't need to be at school I generally work at home which allows me to work while taking frequent breaks to run into the kitchen to make dishes that take slightly longer than I have time for during the week.

Tonight, I decided to make jambalaya as I had some veggies that needed to be used up before they went bad and because the beans I was cooking weren't going to be ready in time for tonight. (I'll be using them tomorrow.) So I planned ahead a little and thawed some Italian turkey sausage and a HUGE chicken breast in preparation for tonight's dinner.

This isn't a completely traditional jambalaya but it's tasty nonetheless. I rarely have any sausage other than Italian on hand so I've just taken to using it even when a different sausage might be more traditional. This makes a nice big pot of food so Jeremy and I get leftovers for a few meals. It's nice and spicy but you can cut back on the spice by eliminating some of the cayenne and crushed red pepper or changing the type of sausage you use. Depending on the sausage used, it might be necessary to drain the rendered fat if it's excessive... but since my turkey sausage is relatively lean, it wasn't necessary in this recipe.

I didn't add any extra salt to this dish at all. After looking at the nutrition labels on the diced tomatoes and the tomato paste, I figured we probably didn't need any added. I always use low sodium stocks but even those have quite a bit of salt in them. From now on I'm going to try to watch how much total sodium I have in a dish and try to season accordingly... and try to buy low or no sodium tomatoes. It's amazing how much sodium some of these things contain... and they don't even taste salty!

Recipe:
1 lb. hot Italian turkey sausage links (you can certainly substitute other sausages)
1-2 chicken breasts (depending on size), cut into bite-sized pieces
2 bell peppers, diced
5 stalks celery, diced
2 medium onions, diced
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 bay leaves
1 can (15 oz.) diced tomatoes
3 tbs. tomato paste
3 tbs. ground cumin
1 tsp. paprika
1 tsp. dried thyme leaves
1 tsp. rosemary, minced (this I actually had fresh... but dried would work too)
1/2 tsp. dried oregano
3 tbs. flat leaf parsley, minced
1/4 tsp. crushed red pepper flake
1/4 tsp. cayenne pepper
1/4 tsp. black pepper
2 c. rice
4 c. chicken stock

1. Heat a dutch oven or large stew pot over medium high heat. Add one tbs olive oil. Brown sausage on all sides. When sausage is almost finished cooking, add chicken. Continue cooking until chicken is cooked through.  Remove from pan and wrap in foil to keep warm.
2. Add bell pepper, celery, onion, garlic, and bay leaves. Saute for 5-6 minutes until beginning to soften.
3. Add tomato paste and mix to incorporate thoroughly. Continue cooking for 1-2 minutes being careful not to burn the tomato paste.
4. Add all the spices and herbs except the parsley.
5. Slice the sausage into bite-sized pieces. Add sausage and chicken back to the pot with any juices in the foil.
6. Add rice and stir to incorporate rice throughout the pot.
7. Add diced tomatoes, parsley, and chicken stock.
8. Bring to a boil. Reduce heat to maintain a simmer. Simmer for 18-20 minutes until all the rice is cooked and the liquid is absorbed. (If the rice isn't completely soft, add extra chicken stock or water as needed. I added an extra cup of water but it varies every time I make this.)