Cheap & Easy, grains, side dish, vegan(izable) 1 comment

Green Rice (Parsley Rice)

By on January 27th, 2012

Sometimes I spend so much time investigating main courses that I totally forget the other parts of the meal.  This recipe is so good, however, that it’ll make you forget the main course. The tiny toasted sesame seeds add such a nutty flavor and the copious amount of parsley keeps the dish light and fresh.

greenriceHC2

I served this dish with simply sauteed squash but I think it would be a great accompaniment for salmon, or any fish really, or chicken.  Or beans.  Or anything.  Or nothing.  Just alone.  Yum.

greenriceHC

 

Green Rice (adapted from The Natural Cookbook)

Ingredients

1 cup (240 mL) brown rice
5 cups (1 L) water
1/2 cup chopped parsley
1/4 cup sesame seeds
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon soy sauce

Instructions

  1. Bring water to a boil and add rice.
  2. Cook rice 30 minutes or until tender.
  3. Pour water and rice through a fine strainer and return drained rice to cooking pot.
  4. Place rice, covered with a lid, in pot off heat for 10 minutes while you prepare other ingredients.
  5. Toast sesame seeds by bringing a skillet to medium-high heat and adding seeds. Cook until fragrant, stirring often, about 4 minutes.
  6. Add chopped parsley, sesame seeds, oil, and soy sauce to rice. Mix thoroughly.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 30 minute(s)

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bread, Cheap & Easy 3 comments

Whole Wheat Waffles (of insane greatness)

By on January 25th, 2012

If I had children, these waffles would be the basis of their childhood memories.

waffles2

These are, without a doubt, the best waffles I’ve ever made at home.  I’ve made a lot of great tasting waffles here at home, but none of them ever had that snap that a good waffle has with a slightly crisp exterior and a fluffy, steaming interior.

What’s better is the fact that the batter for these guys was whipped up in one bowl in less time than it took for the coffee to brew.  By the time I’d had a cup of coffee, walked the dogs, and heated the waffle iron, the better had sat its requisite 30 minutes and was ready to be cooked up.

waffles

Although there’s a bottle of real maple syrup lurking in the background, I’m a waffle purist and take neither butter nor syrup on my waffle.  As a result, it is super important that the waffle taste wonderful without these extras.  This one did.  I think it was the vanilla.

Wheat Waffles of Insane Greatness (adapted from Food Network)

Ingredients

1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup whole wheat flour
1/4 cup cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup yogurt whisked with 1/2 cup water
(or 1 cup buttermilk)
1/3 cup vegetable oil
1 egg
1 1/2 teaspoons sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Instructions

  1. In a medium bowl, combine the flours, cornstarch, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; mix well.
  2. Add the yogurt+water (or buttermilk), vegetable oil, egg, sugar and vanilla and mix well.
  3. Let the batter sit for 30 minutes.
  4. Preheat a waffle iron. Do not use non-stick spray on the waffle iron; the oil in the batter will allow the waffle to release easily.
  5. Follow the directions on your waffle iron to cook the waffles. Serve immediately with butter and syrup. Makes 4 large waffles.

Preparation time: 35 minute(s)

Cooking time: 5 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

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Asian, Cheap & Easy, main dish, Omnivores add: Chicken, side dish, vegan(izable), vegetables 4 comments

Soba noodles with spinach and mushrooms

By on January 22nd, 2012

Why is it that when I’m in need of a quick meal, only Asian dishes come to mind?  They seem to be the quickest type of meal to whip up and are always so satisfying.

sobaspinachmushroom

I was planning to make some sort of pasta with cream sauce, spinach, and mushrooms when I got totally overwhelmed at that thought, realized I needed something quick, and was inspired by a pack of soba noodles in my pantry.  The sauce consisted of three ingredients and it was just perfect.
Soba noodles with spinach and mushrooms

Ingredients

2 oz soba noodles
3 cups washed spinach
1 garlic clove, minced
6-8 baby portabella mushrooms, cleaned and sliced
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tsp sambal oelek (or other hot chile sauce)
1 tbsp soy sauce

Instructions

  1. Bring plenty of water to a boil and add soba noodles. Cook 6-8 minutes until tender.
  2. Meanwhile saute garlic in some cooking spray for 2-3 minutes.
  3. Add mushrooms and cook 3-5 minutes until they begin to soften.
  4. Throw spinach into hot pan and briefly toss.
  5. Drain water from pasta and add spinach, garlic, and mushroom mixture to the pasta pot.
  6. Add sesame oil, sambal oelek, and soy sauce to pasta pot as well and toss to coat and allow spinach to wilt.
  7. Garnish with sesame seeds and serve.

Preparation time: 5 minute(s)

Cooking time: 10 minute(s)

Number of servings (yield): 2

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main dish, Omnivores add: ground meat 3 comments

Greek Inspired Shortribs

By on January 19th, 2012

Short ribs have recently popped onto my radar.  People rave about them, flavor them uniquely, and they simply look interesting.  Finally, a few months ago, they showed up in my local grocery store.  I bought 5 pounds of them.
shortribs1

I cooked the first package and after dinner when my husband simply said it best: “Never make those again.”

It didn’t hurt my feelings because he was right.

I had washed my hands at least 3 times.  The kitchen sink was covered in a fatty, slimy, film.  Every bite we took seemed to be laced with the same gelatinous feeling.  The flavor was good but the fat was….bad.  BAD.

And when he said ‘never make those again’ I knew I was in trouble – I had another 2.75 pounds of short ribs sitting in my freezer.

I’m one of those unlucky ladies whose husband travels for work.  Back in the day, I was okay with it.  I was working a low maintenance job that I could leave at the office, had two well behaved dogs, and a maid.  Now I have a high maintenance job, three dogs, one cat, and two horses and I don’t think any maids live in the same county as I do.  So when he’s gone, my needles are pinned.  But I knew I could only rid ourselves of these short ribs if I cooked them while he was gone and recovered from the fatty mess on my own.

shortribssquashapasta

 

I put on my thinking cap to develop a cooking method that significantly decreased the amount of fat left in the final product.  The recipe was so good, in fact, that I saved just a little bit to serve him when he came back from his trip.  He, of course, with his super fast metabolism, ate his over pasta.  As you can see above, I ate mine over shredded yellow squash ‘noodles.’

The truth about this cooking method is that it takes more time than the other.  This isn’t a “a feel like short ribs for dinner!” recipe.  It requires planning.  If you’ve ever wanted to love short ribs like I have, however, but couldn’t get past the fat then this is the method for you.  I’ll include the recipe I used as well but I think this method can be used for a variety of recipes.

Greek Style Short Ribs (inspired by Elly Says Opa)

Ingredients

2.75 lb beef short ribs
1 medium yellow onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cinnamon stick
1 pinch ground allspice
1 pinch ground cloves
1 can diced tomatoes, juice included
1 tablespoon dried parsley or a few tablespoons fresh
1 bay leaf
1 tsp salt
pepper to taste

Instructions

  1. Trim shortribs of an easy-to-get-to fat chunks and place in a slow cooker.
  2. Add to the cooker all remaining ingredients and stir to distribute.
  3. Cook on low 10-12 hours. (I did this step overnight so when it was time for step two, the ribs would cool while I was working and be ready to handle after work in the afternoon.)
  4. Place crockpot in the refrigerator and allow to cool completely. Fat will come to the top and solidify.
  5. Scrape fat from top of crockpot and discard.
  6. Remove short ribs from crockpot. Remove bones from ribs and shred meat, place into a large saucepan.
  7. Pour remaining liquid from crockpot (it will have suspended chunks of fat floating around!) through a strainer over the saucepan containing the shortrib meat. This will give you about 1/2 cup liquid, minus the bay leaf, cinnamon stick, and fat chunks.
  8. Bring meat and liquid to a low simmer and shred completely. At this point you can serve the shortribs as desired.
  9. To further remove fat from the sauce, chill shredded meat completely. Remove fat that rises to the top. Return defatted meat to a sauce pan and add 1/4 cup of water. Bring to a low simmer and serve as desired.
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Cheap & Easy, lentils, main dish, Meat Substitute 8 comments

Vegetarian ‘Meat’Loaf

By on January 17th, 2012

When I was a young and novice vegetarian, I spent most of my time trying to come up with meals for dinner that emulated classic meat entrees.

lentilload

I guess that’s a good way to transition yourself from the ways of eating meat to the ways of not eating meat.  New vegetarians may suffer from the panicky thought of “where’s my main course!?” when they remove meat from their diet and rightly so: meat is generally the center of attention in most meals.

Before I became a vegetarian my husband and I didn’t eat a lot of meatloaf.  After I became a vegetarian, we ate a lot of meatloaf.  This meat-free lentil-loaf quenched my desire to have a main course and it is something I would whip up along side the Omnivore’s real meatloaf.  I’d bake them off side by side in the oven and when we would sit down for dinner our plates would look remarkably similar (something that was sort of important to my husband!).

Eventually I got to a point where I was tiring of cooking two main entrees and since I was doing the cooking the meaty entree was on the chopping block.

lentilloaf

My husband is the first to confess his love of ‘loaf’ (he refuses to call it anything other than simply loaf).  Though I’m back into eating meat, this is one recipe that I make time and time again.  I first blogged it way back in 2009 so if you feel like you’ve seen it before, you have.
Lentil Loaf – vegetarian meat loaf

Ingredients

3 cups cooked lentils (about 1.5 cups uncooked), divided
1 small onion, diced
1/4 cup tomato sauce, plus more for topping, if desired (I actually use leftover spaghetti sauce most often)
1/2 cup oats, ground or 1/2 cup bread crumbs
1 tsp dried basil
1/2 tsp garlic powder
salt
pepper
1 whole egg + 1 egg white, beaten
1/2 cup shredded cheese (I’ve used tons of variety here)

Instructions

  1. Bring lentils (cleaned and picked over) to a low boil in about 5 cups of water.
  2. Cook 20-25 minutes or until soft.
  3. Drain water and remove 1 cup of lentils, set aside.
  4. Mash remaining 2 cups of lentils thoroughly with a potato masher or in a food processor.
  5. Fold in remaining lentils and diced onion. Mix.
  6. Add tomato sauce, bread crumbs, basil, garlic powder, salt and pepper, and shredded cheese. Mix thoroughly.
  7. Add beaten egg mixture and mix thoroughly.
  8. Prepare a loaf pan by spraying it generously with cooking spray or lining it with aluminum foil and spraying that with cooking spray.
  9. Spread lentil mixture into loaf pan and bake in a 350 degree oven for 40 minutes or until top seems a little dried.
  10. Garnish with additional tomato sauce, if desired.

Preparation time: 10 minute(s)

Cooking time: 1 hour(s)

Number of servings (yield): 4

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