Stew-- a long time in coming

We've been screwing around with this recipe for quite a while now, and we've got something that we think works.  Still, we're probably going to keep screwing around with it, and we recommend you screw around with it, too.  So far, it's been kind of a catch-all of whatever we've got in the house and need to get rid of (and is reasonable to put into this stew).

Hearty Veggie Stew

Ingredients:

• 1 full container (16oz) Veggie broth (you can make this from Better Than Bullion, or use meaty broth if you choose). 
• 2 Corn Cobs (With Corn)
• 1 Tablespoon Olive Oil
• 1 Full Onion, sliced (red or yellow)
• 4 cloves garlic, minced
• 1 Tsp Thyme
• 3-5 medium to large potatoes, cut into small (~1/2 in) cubes.
• 2-4 carrots, sliced
• A bunch of green beans, cut in half
• 1/4 tsp pepper
• 1/2 cup milk
• Some kale, chopped, if you're brave (and the most nutrition-conscious person ever!)
• 1/4 cup Barley

Directions:  Cut all the corn off of the cob, and save it in a bowl for later.  Put the Veggie Broth and the remaining cob into a pot and let simmer on the stove for 20-30 minutes.  This will help to thicken up the broth.  In the mean time, place the olive oil, onion, garlic, and 1/2 tsp thyme in a pan and turn the burner on low.  Gently saute the mixture until it becomes fragrant (slow sauteing will release the flavors to mix with the broth later.  Cooking on high will lock the flavors into these bits, making them very flavorful when you find them in the stew, but not letting the rest of the stew enjoy their flavors).  Turn the crock-pot on high, and combine the following in it:  The Broth (minus the cobs), the sauted mix, the potatoes, the carrots, the green beans, the pepper, the milk, and the remaining 1/2tsp Thyme.  Mix it all well, and let the mixture stew for 1 hour (you can mix occasionally if you like).  After an hour, switch the heat to low and add the saved corn.  Let stew for another hour, then add the Barley (and chopped kale!), and let the mixture stew for 30-45 minutes.  Serve with some freakin' delicious bread.

Your mileage may vary.  You can probably stew the mix for longer before adding the barley and kale, but you should be careful about adding those two if you still have a long time until eating.  Too much time can make them really soggy.

Aunt Shelly's Salsa

We got this recipe from my aunt during a family reunion this past summer.  While I'd like to forget the sleepless nights in a house full of 20-something people and a few infants, the food I'd like to remember!  This recipe is pretty easy, and has been a crowd-pleaser so far.

Salsa

Ingredients:

• 3 cans of stewed tomatoes (drained)
• 1/2 medium onion
• 2 cups cilantro
• 2 Tbs Garlic Salt
• Jalepeno to taste

Directions:  Combine it in a food processor, blend it slightly (you still want some tomato chunks!), serve with delicious mexican food.

Now, we traded out the garlic salt for actual garlic (2 tbs), and then just added a pinch of salt (because sodium is a flavor enhancer).  We also use a pretty small Jalapeno.  We do *not* recommend substituting the jalapeno with Sriracha sauce or chili sauce.  It's just not the same

Beer Bread!

So, I don't usually care for Yeast Juice. I can have it now and then, and I'm starting to learn to appreciate the complexity of the tastes and all that... but if I want to get inerbriated, Yeast Juice isn't usually my first choice. Also, I'm a giant Nancy Boy who wouldn't know a good taste if it punched me in the ovaries. Or so my college friends tell me.

But I've found an awesome use for Beer. Beer Bread. The recipe below doesn't produce quite the awesome deliciousness that I remember my mom making with the Pampered Chef Beer Bread Mix, but this is a much cheaper way to go about it (and is still pretty damned good).

Beer Bread

Ingredients

• 3 cups flour (Sifted, if your flour is pretty densely-packed)
• 3 teaspoons ( = 1 tablespoon) Baking Powder (NOT Baking Soda)
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 - 1/3 cup white sugar
• 1-2 tablespoons butter (optional)
• 12 ounce bottle of beer (of your choice)
  

Directions: This is pretty simple. Preheat the oven to ~375*F. Mix all of the dry ingredients in a bowl, pour the beer in, and mix the hell out of it until it's a smooth, homogenous mix. If desired, melt the butter and mix it into the bread (it will affect the flavor and consistency slightly, but is not very noticeable). Pour the mixture into a greased 5x9 baking dish, place it on the preheating oven, and let rise for ~30-~40 minutes. After rising, if desired melt the butter and pour over the top of the liquidy dough (putting the butter on top will give a crunchier top to the bread as well as affect the flavor a bit. This can really add some variety to the texture). Bake at 375*F for 50-60 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for at least 15 minutes (the longer you wait, the less crumbly your bread will be).

This recipe is especially tasty with a thin layer of butter spread across the bread. It's got a nice sweet and savory flavor to it. Plus, you're making bread from scratch and its very easy. So you've gotta feel self-sufficient (and manly, since you're using yeast juice).

This recipe is really versitile, too! If you've got a beer that compliments it well (a Lager or Ale, I think? Don't take my word on that...), you can mix ~1/2 cup of shredded cheese into the batter before rising, then top the bread with some more shredded cheese before baking for a nice cheesy bread (it's a little bit greasy, though...). I've also made a yummy dessert-type beer bread by using "Wild Blue" Blueberry Lager and mixing 1/2 cup blueberries into the batter.

Experiment with the recipe, and enjoy!

Homemade Biscuit

• 1-1/4 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon baking powder
• 3/4 teaspoon white sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 2 tablespoons and 1-1/2 teaspoons vegetable oil
TO MAKE BUTTERMILK BISCUITS:
Preheat oven to 450 degrees F (230 degrees C). Lightly grease two baking sheets, or line the sheets with parchment paper. Combine ~1.25 cups biscuit mix, 1/3 cup buttermilk, and a pinch of salt (optional). Stir together to form a soft dough. Turn dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead briefly, about 10 times. Cut dough into 6 equal pieces and place on prepared baking sheets. Brush tops of biscuits with milk or egg wash, if desired. Bake 8 to 10 minutes or until light brown.

How to make buttermilk:
1/3 cup milk, 1 tsp vinegar or lemon juice. Let sit for 2-3 minutes.

This was a very simple, quick, cheap, and *tasty* recipe! The biscuits were very flavorful (we didn't even brush the top of the biscuits with milk or egg wash, whatever the hell that is). We used the recipe for Biscuits and Gravy, but I think that these could just as easily serve as dinner biscuits.

Go forth and make home-made food from near-scratch!

Mac and Cheese

I was really, really surprised at how well this turned out, especially considering how some of our other mac-and-cheese attempts came out (As my wife tells me: we're never going to try a mac and cheese recipe from a lowfat cookbook again...). It's got some weird ingredients, but bear with it!

Quick and Creamy Mac-and-cheese
Ingredients:

• 16 ounces uncooked pasta (of your choice... but everyone knows that the shells are the best, and elbow macaroni is a distant second)
• 12 ounces of Butternut Squash (Trust us! Gives a great color and texture, plus lots of nutritious benefits! Also, see my note below.)
• 12 ounces evaporated milk
• 2 cups shredded six-cheese Italian blend (feel free to substitute other types of cheeses or mixes here. I suspect that the exact variety isn't particularly important.)

**Edit** Actually, Bryan is wrong here. Italian cheese blends require smaller quantities to lend assertive cheese taste. Any Italian cheese blend can be used, but if you change cheese types (to cheddar, etc) you will have to change quantities to make a good amount of cheesy flavor.

• 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1/2 tsp salt

Directions: Cook the pasta according to the package instructions. When you strain the pasta, reserve 1/4 a cup of the water (this probably isn't super-important, and you could replace this with 1/4 cup hot water-- especially if you have a plastic measuring cup that will crack when you pour boiling water in it.); Put squash in a saucepan, and gradually add the milk, whisking (or otherwise thoroughly mixing) the two. Cook until the mixture begins to simmer (should take ~3:30 min), then reduce heat to medium. Add all the cheese. Mix it until it's a melted near-homogenous mix. Stir in salt, nutmeg, and the 1/4 cup of water you kept from cooking the pasta. Pour over pasta and serve.


Now, if you're weird, you can add more nutmeg on top of the mac and cheese, but that's just gross.

Gotta admit. While this tasted pretty freakin' good and was super-low in sodium (compared to Kraft), the texture was a little bit grainy. We used whole grain pasta, so maybe that was part of it. I think that it was probably the squash that was responsible, though. You might want to consider really liquifying it in a food processor before mixing it with the evaporated milk.


On making the squash.

• You can buy this frozen at the store, ready to go. Just make sure you thaw it. This will increase the sodium content.
• If you get a butternut squash from the farmer's market you can make the squash from scratch (which can be used for a lot of recipes!). Just cut it in half, gut out the seeds and strings, place face-down on a baking tray, and bake for ~40 minutes at ~400*F. Once done, scoop the squash (not the skin) into a food processor or blender and mix it until smooth (add a little water, if necessary).

And I think that's about it! The recipe makes quite a lot, so if you're cooking for few, you might want to cut it in half.

Idea: I mixed this into some veg chili and it was awesome.

Guacamole

Awright.  So, Avocados are supposed to increase sex drive.  Pay attention.

Guacamole
Ingredients:

• 1 clove garlic,cut
• 1 large ripe avocado, pitted
• .5g or 1/4 tsp chili powder
• 5mL or 1tsp lemon juice
• 5.5g or 2 tsp minced onion
• sour cream
• Corn Chips or tostadas
• Salt

Directions:  Sprinkle your mixing bowl with salt and rub the garlic around on it.  In the bowl, mash the avocado (MASH!!!) and season with 1/4 tsp salt, chili powder, and lemon juice. Stir in the onion.  Mix well.  Cover with a thin layer of sour cream to avoid browning.  Just before serving, mix well, and serve with delicious Mexican food.

Avocados are particularly succeptible to Enzymatic Browning when they're exposed to the air (all the enzymes in the avocado will start breaking down the yummy and nutritious and sex-inducing chemicals and turn it into something that looks like poop-in-a-bowl).  So covering it with sour cream (or eating it quickly) is *very* important.

Also, you can spice this up, if you'd like, by mixing in some of the fleshy (not watery) parts of tomatoes, olives, or bacon.  But personally, the fascination with bacon in everything always seemed a little gross to me.

Also, you are required to watch this video:

Creamy One Pot Pasta

4 garlic cloves, peeled
1 jar sun-dried tomatoes in oil, undrained (7oz)
3 cans (5.25 cups) vegetable broth
1lbs uncooked penne pasta
2 cups broccoli
2 medium carrots
2oz reduced-fat cream cheese
1/2 tsp pepper
1/4 tsp salt

Grated Parmesan cheese and snipped fresh basil leaves - optional.

Mince garlic and add to large pot. Add 1 TBPS of sun dried tomato oil. Cook over medium heat 2-3 mins or until garlic is golden brown. Remove from heat, add broth, bring to boil. Add pasta, cover and simmer 8-10 minutes or until pasta is almost cooked.

Cut broccoli into small florets, cut carrots half lengthwise, then thinly slice. Drain tomatoes, pat dry, and slice into strips.

Separate cream cheese into smaller portions Add vegetables, cream cheese, pepper, and salt. Stir until cream cheese is melted. Reduce heat and cook until vegetables are tender, 2-4 minutes. Top with Parmesan cheese and basil.

** I would also wait for this to cool for 10 minutes before serving because it helps the broth and cream cheese to mix and solidify together and give a better texture and less watery-stuff at the bottom of the pan. I would also DOUBLE the vegetables, but then again, I did going to school for nutrition - we nerds love our veggies.
We used frozen broccoli because we had it on hand and this helped make the process faster.

We also used sun dried tomatoes not in oil this time because we had them and they are way cheaper. I think it does affect the flavor a little, but not that much. Not $5 worth.


ALSO - using something like better than bouillon or Williams West -Witt's Products Vegetables broth, will save a ton of money and space. It's concentrated and SO much cheaper than buying broth already at a liquid. It can be $5 for 4 cups, or $5 for 40 cups! Also, the already made broth has to be used within 7 days and the concentrate is good for a very long time!

I'd love to hear your feedback!

Chicken 'n' dumplings sans chicken

Roux: 1Tbs Butter and 1Tbs Flour (Rouxing is melting the butter and mixing in the flour to create a yellow paste. This works MUCH better with butter than with margarine.)

3 cups veggie broth
1/4 cup carrots
1 Cup onions
4 slices o Quorn "chicken" (or other substitute)
1/4 tsp Thyme
1/8 tsp Tumeric
1/4 cup milk
Salt and pepper to taste

After making the roux, mix in the broth and milk, bring to simmer, and allow the roux to dissolve into the broth. This will help thicken things up a bit. Add veggies and allow to soften a bit (10 minutes).

Bring to boil and toss in the quorn chicken and dumplings. Eat.

Dumplings:
1 cup flour
3 eggs
salt, pepper, butter, to taste

Mix that stuff up! (With a fork.) Place chunks of the mixture into boiling water. Leave there until the dumplings float to the top. You now have dumplings. When placing these in the broth, put the fork in the broth before stabbing a dumpling. This helps a lot in preventing dumpling-fork stickage.


This is how we made it, but we'd change a few things (and we'll update the recipe once we've tried these new ideas-- we just don't want to give you a recommendation that we haven't personally tested!). First, the spices weren't quite giving us all the umph we were hoping for. Maybe increase the spices or add some new ones? Also, we might be able to skip the roux altogether if we cooked the dumplings in the soup rather than cook them separately and then add at the last moment (this might also make the dumplings more flavorful).

We'll keep you posted!

Turkey Dinner (sort of)

Thanksgiving, a time to stuff yourself silly and go around the table with family and say what you're thankful for.
This year I'm thankful for a LOT! My family, husband, puppies, jobs, shelter, food, etc.
Really just about everything I have I'm so happy to have it!

This year was my first year cooking and I am now thankful for the last 6 months I have been learning to cook, because thanksgiving was GOOD! All of this took ~2.5 hours.

The menu for two was:
Tofurkey with homemade gravy
1 package oven roasted tofurkey
4tbps butter
4tbps flour
4 cups chicken flavor veggie broth (we use edward&sons Not-Chick'n Bouillon cubes)
1 tsp poultry seasoning (maybe a little more)
bring to a boil, simmer 20 mins
Top tofurkey with gravy, bake 20 mins

This one was a winner. The gravy is great! And it's SO EASY! No 8 hours of basting, stuffing, etc a turkey.

Green Bean Casserole
Follow instructions on the back of the French's Onion Box
This one I wasn't as happy with. It is like the skimpy version of our casserole but we used the traditional canned (no salt added) green beans instead of fresh like we did with the casserole. I think we'll use fresh from now on.

Butternut Squash Soup
See Previous Post

Mashed Potatoes
See Last Post

Pinot Grigio (Barefoot - classy I know)
Quick bake rolls from Kroger (on sale!)
Cranberry Sauce. (Open Can. Pour. Cut.)

Banana Waffer Dessert
Waffers, vanilla pudding, bananas, whip cream. mmmm...

PICTURE COMING!

Even though it was just the two of us, I think we did really well. I think this was probably the best vegetarian spread I've ever had. I forgot to make the savory onion and leek tart that everyone loved last year. (http://www.chow.com/recipes/10709-savory-onion-and-leek-tart)

First time I've had 'turkey' on thankgiving in 7 or 8 years and I am really happy with my choice! The gravy was killer - first time I've had gravy on my taters is IDK HOW LONG but it was awesome.

Well, I'm off to finish cooking my crazy amounts of indian lentil soup so I can test out freezing stuff! Later homiez!

Parmesan Smashed Potatoes

6-7 small red potatoes
2 cloves garlic, minced
1/4 teaspoon salt (optional)
2 tbs butter
2 tbs Parmesan cheese (or more, if you're awesome)
Milk (to consistency)

Boil potatoes and garlic together in pot until you can easily skewer a potato with a fork (approximately 20 minutes) (you may cut the potatoes in half prior to boiling if you like).  Strain potatoes.  Keep garlic if you can, but it's not critical.  You can add garlic powder at the end if it's that important to you. 

Return potatoes to (empty) pan.  Smash (ideally with a potato smasher, but your fist works in a pinch if you're angry and can deal with the heat). 

Add butter, milk, salt, and Parmesan cheese.  Smash more.  Smash until the potatoes have bowed to your will and are quivering in a creamy mess at the bottom of the pan.  If there are any hard potato pieces, smash them.

Smash.

SMASH

Serves 2.

Butternut Squash Soup

6 servings - taken strait from http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/butternut-squash-soup/detail.aspx

• 6 tablespoons chopped onion
• 4 tablespoons margarine
• 6 cups peeled and cubed butternut squash
• 3 cups water
• 4 cubes chicken bouillon
• 1/2 teaspoon dried marjoram
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 1/8 teaspoon ground cayenne pepper
• 2 (8 ounce) packages cream cheese
• In a large saucepan, saute onions in margarine until tender. Add squash, water, bouillon, marjoram, black pepper and cayenne pepper. Bring to boil; cook 20 minutes, or until squash is tender.
• Puree squash and cream cheese in a blender or food processor in batches until smooth. Return to saucepan, and heat through. Do not allow to boil.

Our changes:
We cooked the squash first to make it easier to peel and faster to cook.
We only put in 1 package of cream cheese, because it is creamy enough already!
And of course we used veggie broth instead of chicken broth!

It's pretty awesome. We've had several people ask for the recipe. I highly recommend trying this one out for thanksgiving!

Chili Dogs and Chickn Sammiches

Right now I'm still in search of a good chili recipe. If anyone has any ideas I'd love to hear them!

For my chili-dogs I just used Bush's chili beans. They are really good and since they come out of a can are ready instantly! I forget what kind of dogs we used, but they were okay - I still miss Morning Star's Hot Dogs. Those were the best.

We also did "Chicken" sandwiches. We used sour cream instead of mayo because we didn't have mayo and the sour cream was left over. Lettuce, tomato, etc. It's yummy. I believe we used Morning Star's patties, but Boca and Qron are good too.

Pumpkin Pie

Pumpkin Pie Filling:

• 2 cups mashed, cooked pumpkin (See Below)
  
• 1 can evaporated milk-- you'll need somewhere between 5 and 12 ounces
  
• 2 eggs, beaten
• 3/4 cup packed brown sugar (Maybe just a tad more...)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon cloves

Making the Cooked Pumpkin: There are a couple ways to do this. Either way will require a pie pumpkin, which tend to be small and sold around/before halloween in the Midwest. The first (better) way is to, after gutting the pumpkin, slice the pumpkin into crescents, place on a greased pan, and cook at 375*F for about 40 minutes. When done, scoop the innards away from the skin, ad you've got your pie mixture. The second way, which looses a lot of nutrients and takes more time, is to cut the gutted pumpkin into chunks and boil them until you can easily skewer them with a fork (ala mashed potatoes). The problem with this is that water-soluble nutrients leak out of the pumpkin when you boil it.

Making the filling: Once you've got your pumpkin goo (you should have two cups!), put it in a blender of food processor and add a little bit of the evaporated milk and blend the hell out of it. This will take a little practice (and/or luck!): you want to make a mixture that's smooth and about the consistency of thick soup. If you add too much evaporated milk, you're going to wind up with a soupy mess that might not hold together well in the pie. If you add to little, it's going to have a grainy texture and might be a little chunky. If in doubt, I would add a little more rather than a little less. Once this is done, add the sugar and spices. The clove really give it a nice taste, but you've *got* to be careful with them. They can make the pie overpowering if you add much more than 1/4 tsp. Mix this all together with the blender/processor. Finally, mix in the eggs. I really recommend you add 2 eggs. The eggs help to give some consistency to the final product. I've been worried about getting a weird flavor from adding two eggs... but whenever I add only one I wind up with a pie that's pretty gooey at the end. Alternatively, I haven't had any problem with taste when I add 2 eggs. Anywho, add the eggs and blend.

Once this is all done, pour the mixture into a pie crust (if you want this to be home-made, you're on your own for now! We haven't given that a shot yet...), and bake at 400*F for 40 minutes. Let cool on the counter for an hour after removing from the oven. I recommend putting it in the fridge for an additional hour or two after that, but if you just can't wait, dive in. ;)

Chana Masala

We tried this Chana recipe
http://vegetarian.about.com/od/maindishentreerecipes/r/ChanaMasala.htm

Prep Time: 5 minutes

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Total Time: 25 minutes

Ingredients:

• 1 can chickpeas in water (also called garbanzo beans) or 1 1/2 cups precooked + 1/2 cup water
• 1/2 onion, diced
• 3 cloves garlic, diced
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• juice from one lemon, (approx 2 tbsp )
• 1/2 tsp curry powder
• 1/2 tsp coriander powder
• 1/2 tsp cumin
• 1/2 tsp garam masala
• 1 large bunch of spinach or two handfuls, rinsed

We followed it and it wasn't bad, but it wasn't a keeper either. We have some work to do. It was too dry first of all. It needed something like tomato sauce. We also used an in-season Chinese spinach or something similar to spinach but more hearty. That was really good. We'll keep looking and taking suggestions.

Okra

http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/easy-indian-style-okra/detail.aspx

Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1 medium onion, chopped
• 1 pound sliced fresh okra
• 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• salt to taste

Directions

1. Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat. Add the onion, and cook until tender. Stir in the okra, and season with cumin, ginger, coriander, pepper and salt. Cook and stir for a few minutes, then reduce the heat to medium-low, and cover the pan. Cook for 20 minutes, stirring occasionally until okra is tender.

So, we tried okra. Bryan didn't mind it, but the texture was just too much for me. It was so slimy, and once it got cold (which didn't take long) it was REALLY gross.
If any one has a way to make it less slimy, I'd like to hear it. But the farmer I bought them from that some things will make them less slimy, but they will always be slimy.
So this one is a no go for us. We'll try another vegetable...

Couscus

http://cocinarcomercompartir.com/recipes/basil-couscous-with-red-pepper-and-sunflower-seeds-80105?servings=1&units=us

• 2 c. Fast-cooking couscous
• 2 c. Boiling water
• 2 x Cups lightly packed fresh basil leaves
• 1 1/2 c. Lightly packed parsley leaves
• 1/4 c. vegetable stock
  
• 8 x Cloves garlic, peeled
• 3 Tbsp. Virgin extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tsp Salt
• 1/4 tsp Pepper
• 1 med Red bell pepper, halved, cored, seeded & minced
• 1/3 c. Toasted sunflower seeds

Directions

Boil as much water as is needed to cook couscous. Blanch basil and parsley in boiling water for 10-15 seconds. Drain herbs and place in the food processor. Cook couscous in boiling water.
In food processor add herbs, broth, and garlic. Process til smooth. Add couscous and processed mix into a bowl. Add a cut up red pepper. We also added one package (~10-12oz) of tofu.
Be careful not to add the bottom of the bottle of sunflower seeds because it gets grainy and the whole batch will taste like sunflower seeds. The seeds do add a great texture - so don't omit them!

We liked this enough to make it twice! It's got a lot of left overs and is easy to reheat. You could easily throw in more vegetables to make a good salad-like feel for a party!

Shepards Pie, Vegetarian

I have seen Bryan eat Shepard's Pie at the local Irish Restaurant several times, and it always looks REALLY GOOD! So we have finally tried to make a vegetarian version.
It turned out great. We looked at these two recipes:
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/vegetarian-shepherds-pie/detail.aspx
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/vegetable-shepherds-pie/detail.aspx

We followed the second one to some extent.

• Several Red potatoes
  
• 2 carrots, sliced
• 16oz mixed veggies (eggplant, oh crap, what else?)
  
• 1/2 teaspoon garlic powder
• 1/2 teaspoon dried basil
• 1/2 teaspoon dried parsley
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/4 teaspoon ground black pepper
• 6 tablespoons milk
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1 teaspoon vegetable oil
• 1 (19 ounce) can kidney beans, drained
• 1 (14.5 ounce) can diced tomatoes, drained
• 1 (8 ounce) can tomato sauce
• 1 teaspoon soy sauce
• 1/2 teaspoon white sugar
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
• 1/2 teaspoon paprika

was our recipe. We made the mashed potatoes based on a different recipe we had already done.
http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/garlic-mashed-red-potatoes/detail.aspx
It turned out really good. I might try and find a way to add more flavor to the veggies, but I really loved the mashed potatoes so I might just make more mashed potatoes next time.

Stew with BARLEY

We have been buying a lot of vegetables from the farmer's market. Eating local has a lot of benefits that I really like to talk about.
-You eat fresh stuff, so it tastes better, nutrients have less time to degrade
-You keep your money local, which helps the local economy - a BIG deal in Michigan
- You know who is bringing you your food. This means you know if they use pesticide, what kind, how much, GMO, hormones, or WHATEVER, but you KNOW so you can decide what is okay.
- This also means it's generally a smaller farm and can take the time to have correct sanitation practices, so food borne illness can be lower
- It is a really cool environment to walk through!

Anyway, fall vegetables are great! But using them in a variety of ways can be tough. So we made a stew, that is very similar to our casserole, except instead of baking it, we put it in the crock pot for 3-4 hours. We have played with the stew a lot more than the casserole in an effort to make the two dishes different, as well as change the flavor. We use potatoes, green beans, carrots, thyme, salt, pepper, vegetable broth, and onions each time. We've play around with cream of mushroom soup, yogurt, and a barley to make it thick and different. The barley was a success, however, we *may* have overdone it. The instructions were for using 1 cup of barley, and BOY did that fill up the pot! In the left overs the barley soaked up so much broth that there wasn't any left! So, lesson with barley: start small.

Other than that, this is another recipe we have toyed with so we don't have a specific perfect one yet!

Real Butter

So, in trying to eat a less processed diet we tried switching from margarine (which is vegetable oil based but has trans fats) to whipped butter (which has saturated fat but less than regular butter because it has more air in it than regular butter)

We learned that cooking with REAL butter (or whipped butter) when doing things like gravies, pastries etc, makes a HUGE difference. In my biscuits and gravy recipe I used to use margarine and flour to make a rou and it took forEVER to get it to mix in with the milk. When I used real butter it was almost INSTANT!

So, for those of you trying to fight the good (health) fight. For cooking, and for your health, real butter may actually be better...

Thai, Bad Mac&Cheese, B&G variation, Sandwich, Pizza

So, there are some other foods we've cooked that we haven't been able to post for one reason or another.

Recently we made the yellow curry - the cooking was fine! Finding the ingredients was HORRIFIC! Trips to several Asian marts, specialty grocers, and a lot of googling for substitutes we started with this:

This vegetable curry can be made as a side dish, or as the star player. Either way, this Thai yellow curry is super healthy with its homemade combination of fresh herbs and spices (no packaged curry paste used here), plus an array of vegetables such as bok choy, broccoli, snow peas, eggplant - or whatever greens happen to be in season where you live. So head out to the market, pick up some fresh veggies, and cook up this easy Thai yellow curry for a truly healthy and taste-sensational treat!

Prep Time: 25 minutes

Cook Time: 10 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Ingredients:

• YELLOW CURRY SAUCE:
• 1-2 cans good-quality coconut milk (see instructions)
• 1/2 tsp. fenugreek***
• 1 tsp. ground coriander
• 1 tsp. black mustard seeds***
• 1-2 yellow chilies, OR green or red chilies, de-seeded (or leave seeds in for a spicer curry)
• 1 Tbsp. ground cumin
• 3/4 tsp. turmeric, dried, OR 1 thumb-size piece fresh turmeric, peeled and sliced
• 3 cloves garlic
• 1 thumb-size piece galangal OR ginger, peeled and sliced
• 1 stalk lemongrass, sliced thinly, OR 2 Tbsp. frozen prepared lemongrass (see below for more on lemongrass)
• 1/2 onion
• 3 Tbsp. vegetarian fish sauce (or regular fish sauce) OR 4 Tbsp. soy sauce***
• 1/2 cup fresh coriander, including the stems
• 2 Tbsp. brown sugar
• juice of 1/2 lime
• 2-3 kaffir lime leaves, fresh or frozen (find these at Asian food stores), and cut into strips
• VEGETABLES (choose from the following, or add your own combination):
• 1 can fava beans, broad beans, OR chick peas
• approximately 2 cups bok choy, baby bok choy, or Chinese cabbage, chopped
• 4-6 shiitake mushroom, sliced
• 1 yellow bell pepper, sliced
• 1 large carrot, sliced
• 1 cup broccoli
• 1 cup cauliflower
• 1/2 to 1 cup fresh basil to finish the dish, roughly chopped if the leaves are large

Preparation:

For more on how to buy and prepare lemongrass, see: Buying and Preparing Lemongrass.

1. Place 1/2 can of the coconut milk (reserve the rest for later) plus all other sauce ingredients in a food processor. Process well. You now have a homemade yellow curry paste.
2. Place 1-2 Tbsp. oil in a wok or large frying pan over medium to high heat. Add the curry paste and gently stir-fry for 1 minute, or until fragrant.
3. Add the other 1/2 can of coconut milk and stir. Now add those vegetables that require the longest cooking time, such as the carrots, mushrooms and cauliflower. Stir well and bring to a simmering boil. Turn down heat to medium, cover, and cook for 5-10 minutes.
4. Depending on how much sauce you prefer, plus how many vegetables you are cooking, add 1/2 to 1 can more coconut milk. Then add the rest of the vegetables. Stir well and cover, allowing to cook for another 5 minutes (Note: add the bok choy/Chinese cabbage last, as these only take a minute or two, and you want them still slightly crunchy).
5. Remove from heat and do a taste test. Add more salt or fish sauce/soy sauce if not salty enough. If the sauce is too bitter, add 1-2 Tbsp. more brown sugar. If it's too sweet, add more lime juice.
6. Sprinkle the curry with fresh basil and serve with plenty of Thai jasmine-scented rice (white or brown). This dish also works well served with white or whole-grain couscous, or white/whole-grain basmati rice. ENJOY!

And ended up changing all this:

We couldn't find fenugreek, and a good replacement is yellow mustard seeds. We couldn't find yellow OR black mustard seeds, so we just put in brown mustards seeds for the black and left out the fenugreek/yellow mustard seeds.
We started out using 1 can coconut oil, but after we added a yellow chilie (also a challenge to find) it was pretty hot so we added the second can of coconut milk.
We also used tamari soy sauce because it is a less salty smoother variant of soy sauce.
We added tofu, and our vegetables were red potatoes and carrots because that is what is currently in season.
Also we learned that coriander is cilantro - just depends on what your from!
We also haven't found another use for the lemongrass yet so the other half the package is wasting away in our fridge.

The food was good and we served it on Indian Basmati Rice.


We have also made
Mac&Cheese with vegetables.
Advice - Don't get a Mac&Cheese recipe from a low fat cook book.

Stew - quite similar to our casserole except in a crock pot and we also added Kale and vegetable broth. It was also really good and got even better the more days it sitting in the fridge.

Tacos were our first meal we cooked here, but that was pretty standard.
Advice: don't add taco bell seasoning spice to taco bell canned refried beans.

Biscuits and Gravy with GimmeLean sausage. - It doesn't work quite the same at adding texture to the dish as the morningstar crumbles do.

Flatbread+Peppers+Hummus+Provolone. Good, even better when the peppers are heated up first and melt the cheese.

Pizza - we got the crust from Plum Market, a local grocery store, and it was AWESOME!!! WAY better than any pizza crust we've made.

So, that's what we've been up to.
How are you all?

Good Ole Casserole

I looked over a bunch of casserole recipes and decided that I could make one with the food we had.  The result was an absolutely delicious meal with an earthy texture.

• 1 can cream of mushroom soup with roasted garlic
• 1 can milk
• Bunch of green Beans (2-3 cups, cut into thirds)
• bunch of red potatos (1-2 cups, cut into 1/2 inch cubes)
• A few stalks green onions (we used about 5, cut into ~1/2 inch portions)
• Cheddar Cheese
• French's onions
• Quorn Chicken Substitute (3 cutlets, cut into ~1-inch cubes.  Alternatively, use a breast or two of cooked chicken)
• 1/2 tsppeper
• 1/4 teaspoon Salt (we used Lowry's season salt)
• 1/4 teaspoon Garlic Powder
• Side of delicious bread with butter

Preheat Oven to 350.

Steam the green beans for about 5-10 minutes (taste-test them now and again).  They should be not-quite-fully-soft when you take them out of the steamer.  Alternatively, if you don't have a steamer (they're only a few dollars!  They make cooking veggies vastly quicker and preserve a LOT of the nutrients that you lose in boiling!), you can use a can of Green Beans.

Cut the potatoes, green onions, and chicken-ish stuff.  Place all veggies into your pan, add the cream of mushroom and can of milk (I usually make sure to swoosh the milk around in the can to try and get ALL of the soup out).  Thoroughly mix all the ingredients together in the pan. 

Cover with aluminum foil and bake for 20 minutes.  Remove cover, add cheese and French's Onions, and bake for another 5 minutes.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.  Sometimes, the onions can get soggy during baking, so some might prefer to add the French's onions after baking is finished.

It was freakin' great, and we had to fight over who got the leftovers.  :)  We were able to buy most of the ingredients (save the cream of mushroom and French's onions, of course) locally.  And the best part is that it really didn't require a lot of cooking attention compared to, say, the Yellow Curry we made a few days ago!

Enchiladas Tempeh

This didn't turn out very awesome. 

Ingredients

1. 8-12 ounces tempeh, cut into thin strips
2. 1cup enchilada sauce or salsa
3. 8 corn (or flour) tortillas
4. 1/2 cup shredded fat-free Cheddar Cheese
5. 1/2 cup sliced green onions
6. 4-8 tablespoons fat-free sour cream
7. 1/4 cup finely chopped cilantro

Procedure:

1. Combine Tempeh and enchilada sauce in glass baking dish.  Refrigerate 1-2 hours; drain, reserving enchilada sauce.  Saute Tempeh in skillet until browned, 3-5 minutes.
2. Dip tortillas in Enchilada sauce to coat lightly.  Spoon tempeh along center of tortilla; top with cheese, green onions, sour cream, and cilantro.  Roll up and place into baking pan, seam-side down.  Pour Enchilada Sauce over enchiladas.  Top with cheese.  Bake Loosely Covered (like with tin foil or something).

These came out a little crunchy, because I forgot to do that emphasized bold part up there...  Oops.  We also realized far too late that we needed more Enchilada sauce--  probably double the enchilada sauce.  We were scrounging for it by the end!  We also need to make sure that the pan is sufficiently deep to make sure the enchiladas can be covered!

No picture this time.  Too hungry to find the camera!

Pad Thai

Mmmmmm...  Pad Thai.

So, we've tried two pad Thai recipes so far.  The first was based on this video (which we do not recommend you follow!!!):

That left us with a creamy kind of peanut butter poured over some vegetables.  It also didn't help that we bought the wrong noodles.  But it would have greatly helped if there were (even approximate) measurements posted somewhere for that video.  As it turns out "A whole fucking lot" isn't as much as you might think.

Anyway...  The recipe we tried this time turned out a lot better.  The full recipe can be found here. 

It turned out MUCH better, and even kept well enough for leftovers the next day!  (It makes a lot...)  We had some trouble tracking down "Corriander" so we just used Cilantro and sprinkled with a little bit of ground corriander seed. 

As it turns out, Corriander smells/tastes a little bit like fruit loops.  Try it!

Pad thai, I think, will be a recipe that I insist on doing again and again until I get it to taste delicious.  Even if we go through some monstrous versions of it...  But for now, the next time I make it I want to do an overhaul consisting of the following:

• No Corriander.  Just Cilantro
• Put some extra peanuts in during the stir-frying section.
• More (perhaps 1.5 times as much?) sauce.
• Fry the noodles a little longer.
• Add some tofu.

We have a picture, which we will upload soon!

Breakfast Skillet

2 medium potatoes (type is your choice, though we use brown potatoes)
2 Morningstar Sausage Patties (you can substitute real meat, of course, but remember to brown it first)
2-3 eggs
1 Tbs Milk
2 Tsp Rosemary
3 Tbs Olive Oil
Lowry's Season Salt
Cojack cheese (or other cheese you like)

1. Put olive oil in skillet, and put heat on lowest setting.  Crush rosemary and sprinkle into olive oil.  Allow oil to heat for 5-10 minutes while you perform step 2.
2. Cut potatoes into thin slices (.5-1cm thick).  Heat morningstar sausage patties in microwave for 1 minute, and cut or tear the patties into small chunks (1.5-2cm).  Put potatoes and sausage chunks into skillet.  Sprinkle with Lowry's to taste.
3. Increase heat in skillet to medium.  Brown potatoes roughly.
4. Mix eggs and milk in a bowl.  Beat eggs thoroughly (like they said something mean about your parents).
5. Once potatoes are browned, mix in eggs, stirring constantly.  Allow eggs to cook completely.
6. Mix in cheese, to taste.
7. Serve hot.  Does not reheat well!

Carmen and I make this a lot, and I've been tweaking it now and then since she showed it to me.  We'll probably keep on changing it, but this is what it's like as it currently stands.  Now and again we add some green onions (delicious!), and have toyed with adding green peppers or other spices.  It's always a winner and is great comfort food.  From start to finish, it usually takes me about a half hour to 45 minutes to make.

Brinner is awesome!

Grilled Veggies and 'Chikn'

Hello All!

Today we grilled vegetables again. We had a bunch of under-utilized vegetables from other recipes dying to be eaten!

So we threw asparagus, onion, potato, tomato, and carrots into two different marinades for 30 minutes and grilled them. We also had cilantro fungus chikn again.

Spicy Orange & Cilantro
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon orange juice
1 tablespoon orange marmalade
1 tablespoon chopped fresh cilantro
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-marinades-for-grilled-vegetables.html#ixzz1RH9D0PpX

Lemon & Garlic
1 tablespoon olive oil
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 tablespoon lemon zest
1 teaspoon minced garlic
Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste

Read more: http://www.care2.com/greenliving/5-marinades-for-grilled-vegetables.html#ixzz1RH9PLqq5

The Spicy Orange and cilantro was what we grilled first. The vegetables all had great textures after grilling and still retained some of their own flavor, but was help together by the marinade. This has a light orange taste, not much cilantro flavor, and a lot of HOT! We're not big hot-spice people, so we may cut down the spice a bit next time.
The lemon and garlic had a similar problem - LOTS of lemon, not much garlic. Now, I LOVE lemon flavors, so that was totally cool with me. However, Bryan didn't find it as appetizing and was really disappointed.
The chicken was good as always! Vegetable brother and light spicing really make that a great texture and flavor.
We also threw some texas toast in there. I really enjoy cooking everything from scratch, but I haven't been able to make garlic bread as good as that frozen stuff yet.

So, the lesson of today is - if you don't eat enough veggies, marinade and grill them, just make sure to play around the with marinades to perfect them to your taste!

Chilled Summer Soup with Black Bean Relish

My mother-in-law gave me several cookbooks for Christmas, this is from Pampered Chef, Quick Vegetarian Main Dishes.

Soup
2 medium cucumbers
4 green onions with tops
1.5 c vegetable broth
1 c frozen peas
2 garlic cloves, peeled
3 limes
1 avocado, peeled and pitted
1/4 t salt
1/8 t black pepper

Relish and Garnish
1 small red bell pepper
2 green onions with tops
1 can black beans, drained and rinsed
1 garlic clove, pressed
lime juice from soup
1/4 t salt
1/8 t black pepper
1/4 c soup cream

1. Peel cucumbers. slice cucumbers, remove seeds. Slice green onions into thirds. Add cucumbers, onions, broth, peas, and garlic to blender. Blend until smooth.
2. Cut bell pepper into 1/2in pieces and thinly sliced onions. Toss together bell pepper, onions, beans, garlic, reserved juice, salt and black pepper in a small bowl.

This was mediocre. The soup was not cohesive. The flavor of the cucumber and avocado came through individually and weakly. The texture was very thin, which is great for some soups, but I expected something heartier. The topping was good, but couldn't make up for the bland soup. We used the topping as an additive to a quesadilla.
I think this soup could be saved with some good spices. Chili powder, cumin, cayenne, cilantro, or something of the like would have been great. It looks great, but we just felt it was too bland. We may try it again - but make sure you plan on eating it fast! It's only green for about a day.

Try it with some chips, the book recommends 1/4tsp of chipotle powder on tortillas.

Better luck next time! We might just stick to good old guacamole...

Vegetarian Falafel Pitas (A!)

This was absolutely great!  I wasn't honestly expecting much-- I've had Falafel in the dining courts at Purdue, and they were always pretty "meh."  But these were delicious.  Crispy, just a tiny bit spicy, very flavorful, and everything was mellowed out by the Cucumber sauce.  And, best of all, it was very vegetable-y!  (Yes, I'm allowed to make up words.  Trust me.  I'm a scientist.)  I also think that this is the first meal that I wouldn't change anything about...

Falafel

• 1 package (6 ounces) falafel mix
• 1/2 cup shredded carrots
• 1/4 cup sunflower seeds
• 2 TBS Thinly-Sliced Green Onions 

1. Prepare falafel mix with water according to package.  Mix in carrots, sunflower kernels, and green onions.
2. Shape into patties 1/2 inch thick (or whatever other shape you think will be good); cook in lightly-greased large skillet until browned, 4-5 minutes on each side.  Serve in pitas with yogurt sauce.

Yogurt Sauce:

• 1 Cup reduced-fat plain yogurt
• 1 cup finely-chopped cucumber
• 1/2 tsp mint leaves
• Salt and white pepper (to taste)

1. Mix these together.  Let it sit for a few minutes.

Tasty!

Also, we want to start getting pictures up on our blog of the things that we make, but we're always too hungry.  We'll do better, we promise!!!

Grilled Asparugus Salad with 'Chikn'

It was really nice out the last few days so we decided to grill.
What the heck do you grill as a vegetarian?

We looked it up on allrecipes.com and came up with this
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/grilled-asparagus-salad/detail.aspx
6 servings
1/4 c olive oil
1/8 c lemon juice
12 fresh asparagus spears (we used 16)
6 c spinach leaves
1/8 c Parmesan cheese
1 T slivered almonds (we used sunflower seeds)

1. Preheat a grill for low heat. Combine the lemon juice and olive oil on a plate. Place asparagus on the plate, and roll around to coat.
2. Grill asparagus for about 5 minutes, turning at least once, and brushing with the olive oil mixture. Remove from the grill, and place back onto the plate with the oil.
3. In a large bowl, combine the spinach, Parmesan cheese, and slivered almonds. Cut asparagus into bite size pieces, and add to the salad along with the lemon juice and oil from the plate. Toss to blend, then serve.

Now, you have to watch out for the bottom of the bowl! It can get VERY lemon-ee so either drain it off, or serve it immediately.

We also added quorn 'chicken' to our salad. It's a fungus that is extremely high in protein made to be a chicken substitute. We cooked it in vegetable broth (which makes it super juicy) and added cilantro (because we have a ton left over from another dish) and some lemon pepper, because I freaking love lemon pepper.

We topped out salad with that. It was quite yummy.

However - this salad is simply not hearty enough for a meal, so make sure you serve it with some sides or as a side.

Flavor - very yummy.
We really liked that the seasoning for the asparagus wasn't thrown out and wasted at the end, like many marinades are.
We will do this one again.

Stuffed Peppers

This is the other recipe we got from our cooking gurus (okay, maybe not gurus, but at least pretty cool dudes) that we didn't write down.
A lot of the stuffed pepper recipes I've seen use tomato sauce and the photos just look runny and awful!
We didn't follow and exact recipe either because I wanted to get a bit creative, and didn't want to take the time to reconcile 15 different recipes.
I made some rice, and added some spices. Taco seasoning (the stuff ortega/tacobell/whatever sells to add to your taco meat) some cumin, and general mexican spices. I know, this is totally not helpful if you want to make this - but one of the best ways to become a better cook is EXPERIMENT!

We added some black beans to the fully cooked rice, stuffed the peppers and cooked for ~30 minutes.
And as always with any good western world recipe - TOP WITH CHEESE!!!

The peppers being cooked brought out a great flavor of the peppers. We made a yellow and red pepper, because I don't really care for green.
I would use green ones, even though they aren't my favorite most of the time, but peppers were in season and the better ones were especially cheap.

Then, for left overs, we used the rice bean mixture on top of some already cut better and microwaved it.

They were definitely good, but we need to work on the exact spices.

Portabella Burger

We made a portabella cap burger with our original cooking teachers, and it was awesome. But we didn't have the time to write down the recipe! Tonight, however, we just made up some stuff and it turned out great.
We did a porabella cap soaked in balsamic vinaigrette dressing for a few minutes, cooked it on med-high heat for ~4min/side and then put cheese on it! We put it on a bun with some lettuce, onion, and tomato. It was AWESOME.

HOWEVER, it is not as awesome when it gets cold. This is definitely something you want to eat immediately off the pan/grill.

Mushrooms can have a great taste or a meh or gross taste. I think portabella is one of the better ones by far, and it has a great texture, unlike most fungi. It is the steak of the vegetarian world (texture wise at least). This means it is thick and is something somewhat tough and strong to bite into. I recommend trying one! Even if you are an avid meat eater, having this instead of a second burger at the cook out will cut some calories, still leave you feeling full, and add a larger variety of nutrients to your meal!

Serving 2
Ingredients
2 portabella caps
enough balsamic vinaigrette to cover them
bun
favorite burger toppings

Indian Lentil Soup

6-1.3 cup servings
1/2 c chopped onion
1 clove garlic, minced
2 t curry powder
1 t crushed coriander
1 t cumin seeds
1/2 t ground turmeric
1/4 t crushed red pepper flakes
1 T olive oil
5 cups vegetable broth
4 c water
2 c lentils
salt and pepper to taste
top with plain yogurt

saute onion, garlic curry powder, herbs, and red pepper in oil in large saucepan until onion is tender, about 5 minutes, stirring frequently. Add brother, water, and lentils; heat to boiling. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, until lentils are tender, about 30 minutes. Season to taste with salt and pepper. Top each bowl of soup with a T of yogurt.

This was pretty awesome.

However - I used a lot more than a tablespoon of yogurt. It lightly sweetens the soup and smooths all the flavors and textures into a cohesive awesomeness. (I really need better descriptive terms).
I served the yogurt into my bowl as I ate it, because if it was mixed in the soup it got a little grainy.
I really like it - Bryan really liked it, Jessy came over and she liked it! Also - this is a CHEAP meal! lentils, yogurt, and spices. Mmmmm.

Kabobs: A+

Oh, boy.  We made Kabobs.  And they were DELICIOUS!  Here's the recipe:

1 bag of Meatless Meatballs (Will update with which type)
1 Green Bell Pepper, cut in 1.5-inch square-ish shapes
1 Yellow Bell Pepper, cut in 1.5-inch square-ish shapes
1 Red Bell Pepper, cut in 1.5-inch square-ish shapes
.5 to 1 Onion, cut in 1.5-inch square-ish shapes
1 cob of corn, sliced into 7 circles
Marinade:

• 3/4 Cup Olive Oil
• 1 Tsp red wine vinegar
• 3 Tbs fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 Tbs tamari or shoyu soy sauce
• 1 Tbs honey
• 2 Tsp salt
• 1 Tsp fresh ground pepper
• 1 Tsp dreid parley
• 2 Tsp dried oregano
• 3 cloves of pressed or minced garlic

Cut all your stuff up, mix the marinade, whisk the marinade up, and then pour it over the cut veggies.  Put the veggies in the fridge for 1 to 4 hours, mixing periodically.  Heat up the grill to medium-or-so heat, throw the kabobs on, and grill them and turn them regularly until parts of the kabobs start to turn black (Not the WHOLE thing-- you just want areas that are slightly charred).  Eat.

These were delicious.  We only marinated the veggies for about an hour, and you can get much more flavor if you marinate longer.  We're going to do that next time.  Also, the meatballs came pre-seasoned.  So if you use different fake-meat, we don't take responsibility if it's not super-delicious!

There was a multitude of flavors, and each of them were great.  We wished that we had made more.  I liked them much better when they were warm, but even as they cooled down they were tasty.  This recipe will be repeated!

3/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon tamari or shoyu soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 teaspoon dried parsley

2 teaspoons dried oregano

3 cloves of pressed or minced garlic

Source: Eat Drink Better (http://s.tt/12zCj)

3/4 cup olive oil

1 teaspoon red wine vinegar

3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice

1 tablespoon tamari or shoyu soy sauce

1 tablespoon honey

2 teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper

1 teaspoon dried parsley

2 teaspoons dried oregano

3 cloves of pressed or minced garlic

Source: Eat Drink Better (http://s.tt/12zCj)

• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 3 tablespoons fresh squeezed lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon tamari or shoyu soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey
• 2 teaspoons salt
• 1 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
• 1 teaspoon dried parsley
• 2 teaspoons dried oregano
• 3 cloves of pressed or minced garlic

Source: Eat Drink Better (http://s.tt/12zCj)

Fajitas

Corey's Fajitas.
We used real chicken and fungus chicken. We cooked the fungus chicken in vegetable broth to make it moist.

"meat": originally designed for chicken breast, extra firm tofu pressed dry or seitan will work fine. Cut it into strips and fry in a skillet in olive oil. Sprinkle with cayenne pepper and cumin while frying until golden brown. Remove from skillet, replace with sliced bell pepper and onion (long thin strips). Stir fry them quickly for a minute or two and toss in the "meat". Sprinkle more cumin and some coriander (optional) and more cayenne pepper powder if you want more heat. Sprinkle with juice from a lime, stir to mix and serve hot inside flour tortillas (warm the tortillas in the microwave for 20-30 seconds so they at pliable and don't crack). You can also throw cheese in them.

We over cooked the chicken a little (but there was no food poisoning!) and the fungus chicken was really juicy. Neither had enough spice on them, but that's because given the choice of making the food inedible from too much spice or a little bland - we'd rather have a little bland. And we ran out of cumin. But now we know. Overall it was great. We need to have either more people or less veggies. We had 1 red, yellow, and green pepper and an onion cut up and 4 people fed and there was still a lot left over.

I think this isn't a win yet - but we'll get there!

Zesty Ravioli Skillet

Recipe:
4 cups loosely packed fresh baby spinach leaves
6oz provolone cheese
1tbsp olive oil
1 small jalapeno pepper, seeded
3 garlic cloves, pressed
2 cans (14.5oz) diced tomatoes with onions, undrained
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp black pepper
1 packages 24oz small frozen cheese ravioli
1/3 cup heavy whipping cream

Wash spinach, grate cheese.
Add oil to skillet, med-high heat 1-3 mins.
Chop jalapeno add to skillet, cook for 1 min
press garlic into skillet and cook until fragrant 15-20 seconds
add tomatoes, salt, and pepper, stir 1-2 mins until simmering
add ravioli, stir to coat
cook uncovered 4-5 minutes until tender.
Stir in cream.
Cook uncovered 1-2 mins or until simmering.
Sprinkle spinach over, cook, covered 1 minute or until spinach starts to wilt.
Top with cheese.

This is damn good. We added more spinach and no jalapeno. I think we may add the pepper next time just to see the contrast. Make sure you use a deep pan.
My main complaint with this recipe is what the hell to do with the rest of the whipping cream or half and half when we're done. I think we might start using milk.

It can also be very liquid-ee even after cooking off some of the juice from the canned tomatoes. I would recommend draining 1 can, and leaving the other undrained.

Vegetarian Chili (Via PMU)

For 1/2 gallon or 8 servings
1# Beef (or Veggie Crumbles)
23oz tomato Juice
1.75 c tomato sauce
1.75 c kidney beans
.5 c onion
1/8 c green peppers
1/8 t cayenne
1/3 t oregano
1/3 t pepper
1/4 t cumin
2.5 T chili powder
1/2 t sugar

Simmer for 45+ minutes. Cool. Eat the next day on potatoes, as chili, with noodles, chip dip, or whatever you want.


Well, I had 'this' chili at the Purdue Memorial Union for student employee appreciation day and it was PHENOMENAL! Flavorful, rich, just awesome.
And then I got the recipe and made it at home and it was... okay...

I learned from the chef that you should caramelize the onion first and don't leave out the green peppers! It is also likely the chef did the spices a little bit different since he's been doing this so long.
Overall - it was awesome at PMU, but this.. meh. Back to the cutting board.

Oriental Loaf

1 cup vegetable protein
1 cup reduced-sodium vegetable broth
2.5 cups cooked rice
.25 cups each: sliced green onions, water chestnuts
2tsp each: minced gingerroot, chile sesame oil, reduced-sodium soy sauce
1 clove garlic, minced
.5 cup unseasoned bread crumbs
.25 cups all-purpose flour
.5 teaspoons five-spice powder
salt, pepper to taste
1 egg

So, mixed reviews here.  Carmen didn't like it-- way too dry, and the rice got super-crunchy because there was nothing to keep things moist. 

Bryan didn't like it a lot, but he thinks that it's salvageable. 

It was pretty bland.  Here's what we're thinking-- change the veggie protein and broth to 2 cups instead of one, then reduce the rice to 1.5 cups.  Use 2 eggs.  And maybe make a sauce.  We have no idea what sauce to use!  Maybe it's better to spend time on recipes that don't need as much tweaking...

Or maybe tweaking is what will teach us how to COOK!

BY THE GREAT AND POWERFUL BRYAN

Vegetarian Biscuits and Gravy

By Carmen:
We have been using this recipe for a long time. I got it from a dinning hall my freshman year and fell in love.
Biscuits and Gravy is a midwestern breakfast staple, but as a vegetarian it's kind of off limits - until - THIS!

2tbsp margarine - melted
2tbsp flour - mixed with margarine
milk 2 1/4 cup
add and heat to boiling

sage 1/2 tsp
marjoram <1/4 tsp
salt 1/4 tsp
pepper <1/4 tsp
cayenne <1/4 tsp
add spices

Morning Star (or boca) Veggie Crumbles 1 cup
add, stir, let it cool just a bit to thicken up.

I vary this sometimes - using more crumbles and more sage because I'm a big fan of flavor.
But this is for sure something to try the next time a vegetarian stays over night!
If you like gravy on fried potatoes just take out the sage and marjoram and keep the cayenne light.
mmmmm... I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.

Eggplant and Vegetable Saute

4 - 1 cup servings
1 large eggplant (~1.25lbs), unpeeled, cubed
2 medium onions, chopped
1 each: chopped yellow and red bell pepper
4 t minced roasted garlic
.5 t each - dried savory, thyme, rosemary
1 -15 oz can cannellini beans, rinsed and drained
salt and pepper to taste
Cook eggplant, onions, bell peppers, garlic over medium heat in lightly greased large saucepan, covered 5 mins.
Cook uncovered until tender, 5-8minutes.
Stir in herbs and beans - cook til hot 3-5mins

8oz spaghetti, cooked, warm.
serve over spaghetti

This was a really good vegetable based recipe... BUT it is a LOT of food for 2 people.
It has a great flavor! The spices are just right! But still is missing something to make it cohesive.
Next time we're cooking half as much and planning to eat it for leftovers once.
We're going to try it one night with spaghetti sauce and another with Alfredo sauce.

The first time we started chopping up the onion and realized 2 onions was going to be A LOT! So we only put one in - but then Bryan and I both felt like we needed more onion... so. It looks like a lot, but since it's cooked so much it's dulled down. So - go for all the onion.

Corey's No Lettuce Salad

3 bell peppers of different color
1 cucumber
1 head of fennel
1/2 a melon
Cut all of these into ~1" chunks
4oz Grape or cherry tomatoes
4 oz crumbled goat cheese
1 T Olive Oil - Vinegar Dressing
Mix

Initial Verdict: AWESOME

First of all - the dressing is really hard to find for us. We used Newman's Own which has Olive Oil, Vegetable Oil, Water, Red Wine Vinegar, Onion, Spices, Sal, Garlic, Lemon Juice and distilled vinegar.

Second - the melon is like - wait what? But really - totally awesome.

Third - This is an extremely low calorie salad that is almost all vegetables AND has different COLORS of veggies. Which is great for health.

The goat cheese can be substituted by Feta or another crumbled cheese. These cheeses have a strong flavor so you don't need as much as when you have colby or something like that.

Before this we had never heard of, let alone tasted fennel. She really really liked it. Especially with the cheese! Bryan thought it was a bit too bitter.

We also made this without the tomatoes because we don't like them. The beauty of this salad is everything is chunky enough you can pick out what you don't like.
It is also a nice alternative to lettuce-ee salads, because we know those can get old.

Final Verdict - We will make this a lot. Bryan will eat the tomatoes and Carmen will eat the fennel.

Vegetarian Tetrazzini

Vegetarian Tetrazzini
8oz muchrooms, sliced
1 cup zucchini, sliced
1 cup red bell pepper,
1 cup broccoli florets
1/2 cup chopped onion
1-2 T margarine
1 3/4 cup vegetable broth
1 cup fat free milk
1/2 cup dry white wine or fat free milk
2 T flour
16oz spaghetti, cooked, warm
1oz Parmesan Cheese
1/4 t each nutmeg, salt, and pepper

This recipe was BLAND.
We used the added milk instead of white wine because I forgot we had wine open in the fridge.
We cut the recipe in half for the most part - maybe a few extra veggies.

There are simply not enough spices in this. A low fat tetrazzini may just be a bad tetrazzini.

Next time we're going to try
-Using the wine
-New spices -- oregano
- Tofu in small chunks
- 1/2 c Alfredo, 1/2 cup milk.
We're also going to cut the recipe by a quarter so we don't throw away most of the pan like we did tonight.
Thank goodness my current roommates have a garbage disposal!

Testing

We're going to be learning to cook mostly vegetarian recipes as a couple! This is our tracking system of what was awesome and what wasn't.