Sunday, April 22, 2012
Cantonese Marinade
This marinade is *awesome*. Someone gave my mom the recipe awhile back, and the original recipe called for pork tenderloins so I've included that below. It's also really great with chicken, and probably just as good with turkey breast or beef or whatever else you might marinate and grill. Measuring is not a big deal - combine the ingredients in relative amounts and it'll be good.
2-4 pork tenderloins, 3 lbs. each
Marinade:
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/4 cup hoisin sauce
1/4 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup distilled white or rice wine vinegar
4 whole green onions, chopped
4 cloves garlic, minced
2 tbsp minced fresh ginger root
1/2 tsp hot chili oil (optional)
1 tbsp dark sesame oil (optional)
Mix marinade ingredients. Pour over pork and marinate overnight or 3-4 hours at room temperature. Grill over medium hot coals for 9-11 minutes per side, basting frequently.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Daily Workout Routine, or how to eat pizza and still fit in your pants.
I guess maybe it's a little perverse to post about working out on a food blog but I work out so that I can eat more food, so they kind of go hand in hand. Being more toned is nice, but I really just want to be able to eat pizza and still fit in my pants. Anyway here's my daily workout routine (and I do manage to eat pizza and still fit in my pants).
Morning: 5 minute warmup, then 20 minutes of step aerobics.
It can be hard to get started but this is a great way to start the day - my 20 minute morning workout wakes me up a lot more than my coffee does (but it's a lot easier after I've had my coffee). I use a $20 plastic folding step stool from Bed Bath & Beyond, some cheap barbells I got at Academy, and the timer on my iPhone (part of the included Clock app). I like the step stool because I can move it around to anywhere in the house - in front of the TV, for example - and even take it with me on trips (it fits in my little suitcase). By "step aerobics" I mean stepping up and down on and off that step stool. Maybe kick a leg to each side. Hold the barbells and lift them up above your head and stuff. If you decide to do this too and need some ideas, just search youtube for step aerobics. Sometimes I use 3 lb weights, and sometimes I use 5 lb weights - I want toned arms, not scary Madonna arms. I keep meaning to buy an actual aerobic step, but they're $100 and I have a lot of other things to spend $100 on. If you'd like to be a jerk and ask why I don't just use the stairs - I would, but it wears out the carpet. Plus you can't move stairs in front of the TV. Going up real stairs is a lot harder than a step stool though so if you have a ton of stairs available and just want to do that, by all means do it.
After work: 1 hour on an elliptical trainer.
This is at the gym at work, which for employees is $8 a month (yaaay). I bring my iPad with me, plunk it on the little stand on the elliptical trainer, and watch a TV show or a movie or I read a book. Hubs got me nice noise canceling earbuds which work great. Don't pay any attention if some jerk tells you you're not serious about working out if you have to watch TV to get through it. Tell that jerk to suck a bag of you know whats. I lost 20 pounds and I did not go into that gym once without my iPad. It gets me through my workout. PS: The first 20 minutes are always the hardest, and action movies are great for workouts.
If I can't get to the gym, guess what I do? Yeah. More stepping on the step stool, with the weights. Gets a little tedious but it's convenient and it works.
Heart Rate Monitor…
So, last year I got a heart rate monitor - the "ePulse2 Strapless Heart Rate Monitor Watch & Calorie Counter" (a little armband one that doesn't require a chest strap, because I didn't want to deal with a chest strap) - and I wore it most of the day, every day, for a month. It would tell me what my heart rate was, obviously, and it'd also estimate how many calories I was burning. It was somewhat irritating to wear it every day but I ended up with 30 days of consistent data which I averaged out to figure out how many extra calories I burn when I work out (PS I haven't worn it since). Answer: 1000-1200 (pizza!). Your results *will* vary from mine because it depends on how tall you are, how much you weigh, what your fitness level is, etc. Anyway, the interesting thing I learned from using the heart rate monitor is that once your heart rate is up, you continue to burn calories at a higher rate for, oh, I guess about an hour after. What this means is that working out in short blocks of time throughout the day might result in burning more calories overall than if you work out for an hour straight. So, if you can't find more than 20 minutes at a time to work out or you just can't stand working out for longer - work out for 20 minutes, every 20 minutes you get. I also learned from the heart rate monitor that if I'm just sitting at my desk (and haven't worked out) I don't burn any more calories than I burn when I'm sleeping. Yeahhh.
Calorie Counting…
Did I mention that I lost 20 lbs? Calorie counting was a huge part of this. It's not especially fun, but it's just math, really - if you want to lose weight, take in fewer calories than you burn. Nevermind any article or website that claims to have some special crazy sounding trick to losing weight - you can't eat 3000 calories per day when you only burn 2000 per day and expect to lose weight. Your body will do its best to store that extra 1000 calories. Beware any claim to the contrary, it's probably something super unhealthy. The hard part about calorie counting is figuring out how many calories you're taking in, and how many you're burning. Calorie counting apps help you figure that out and they try to make it as easy as possible.
I have something to point out, though, that I hadn't noticed anybody else pointing out. The calorie counting app that I use (the Livestrong app), takes your weight and whatnot and figures out how many calories it thinks you burn per day based on what activity level you tell it (sedentary, lightly active, moderately active, etc). I don't really trust its guesswork so I tell the app that my activity level is "sedentary" and whenever I work out, I tell it how many calories I think I burned during that 20 minutes or hour or whatever that I worked out. Important thing to realize when doing this: even if you tell it you're sedentary the app is already assuming you are burning a certain number of calories for every minute of your day, just to keep breathing and whatnot. So if you put in the total number of calories you think you burned during your 1 hour workout, guess what? You're double counting calories, because the app already has you down for x number of calories for that hour. If you want to be exact about this (or if, like me, you get frustrated and want to make sure you get results), you will want to figure out how many calories the app thinks you burn when you're not working out (easy enough to do, take the total and divide it up), and subtract that from the total number of calories you think you burned when you worked out. There you go, that's how many *extra* calories you burned. I don't know if other apps account for this differently - it'd be nice if they did.
As far as what to eat when calorie counting to lose weight… I don't want to get into it too much 'cuz it would take all day but fill up as much as you can on fruit and vegetables (fresh is best, frozen and canned are alright too, but dried will have more calories). Think of fruits and vegetables as nutritious filler. If you don't add any sugar or fat you can pretty much eat as much as you want. Like watermelon? Knock yourself out. Even if you managed to eat a whole watermelon - good luck with that - it'd likely be fewer calories total than your average Mexican food plate. Not kidding. For everything else - especially sugar, honey, syrup, butter, cheese, salad dressing, peanut butter, etc - you'll want to look up the calories before you add any to your plate. The calorie counts of some foods may surprise you (peanut butter, for example, has as many calories as regular butter… yikes). Beans, corn, and grains are great and will help fill you up, but I don't consider them vegetables - beans are legumes, corn is a grain, and duh grains are grains. Don't go overboard on those and choose whole grains if possible because the added fiber will help keep you full longer.
Tuesday, March 27, 2012
Beef Vegetable Soup
More work than crockpot pot roast but it has more vegetables, and you can freeze some of the soup base for later batches. If you don't like one of the spices just leave it out. I usually put in potatoes, carrots, green beans, corn, and lima beans but sometimes I'll try different vegetables such as sweet potatoes, edamame, spinach, black eyed peas, tomatoes, cabbage, etc.
2-3 pounds beef eye of round cut in big cubes (1" - 2")
1 medium onion, diced
2 shallots, diced
1 stalk celery, diced
3 cloves garlic, crushed
2 Tbsp chili powder
1 tsp oregano
1 tsp cumin
1/2 tsp rosemary
1/2 tsp celery seed
1 tsp Lawry's seasoned salt
1 box beef stock (32 oz)
1 can tomato paste
potatoes, cut into bite size pieces
carrots, sliced
green beans (I just use a can or two)
frozen corn (half a bag or more, to taste)
frozen lima beans (half a bag or more, to taste)
extra beef stock
Lawry's seasoned salt to taste
black pepper to taste
Dry the meat with a paper towel (it won't brown if you don't). In a large skillet, heat 4 Tbsp vegetable oil until very hot. Add the meat in small amounts and cook until browned on the outside. Don't crowd the pan or the meat won't brown. Transfer the browned meat to a big soup pot.
Turn the heat down a little, add 2 Tbsp oil to the skillet, and cook the onion, shallots, and celery until soft and starting to brown. Add the beef stock, the garlic, the spices, and the tomato paste and stir to mix. If you don't like one or more of the spices, just leave it out. Add all of this to the pot with the meat, and simmer for about 2 hours or until the meat is tender.
If I'm freezing some for later this is the point where I'd take some out and freeze it. The meat and broth hold up very well in the freezer, whereas the texture of the veggies might change (potatoes tend to get mealy when frozen, for example). Later I'll thaw it and proceed with the recipe below. A 4-cup container of soup base + 1 can beef broth + 1 can water + vegetables is enough for two people and probably some extra for lunch.
Once the meat is tender, you can add the vegetables. I just add veggies until it looks the way I want it to. If there's not enough liquid, which there probably won't be, add water or beef stock. Cook until the vegetables are done, about 30-45 minutes. Add seasoned salt (or regular salt) and black pepper to taste.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Citrus-Pineapple-Peach Sorbet
Tastes like rum punch! Use fresh squeezed juices - it's worth it.
1/2 cup fresh lemon juice
1/2 cup fresh or frozen pineapple chunks
1/2 cup fresh or frozen peach chunks
1 1/2 cups fresh orange juice
1/2 cup sugar
1 oz Grenadine
Blend up everything in a blender until the fruit chunks are puréed and the sugar is dissolved. If it's not very cold you might want to chill it for awhile so it'll freeze properly in the ice cream maker. Then pour into ice cream maker and freeze per ice cream maker instructions.
Calories: About 100 calories per half cup.
Friday, February 24, 2012
Wom Kim's Peach Pudding
This is a delicious dessert that they have at Hyde Park Bar & Grill in Austin, and apparently at some point the recipe was published in a magazine and a few bloggers have reposted it (and me, too). It's a moist cake with peaches in it, served warm with fresh cream. SO GOOD.
Yield: 12 servings
vegetable oil spray
1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon coarse kosher salt
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 cups (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temperature
1 3/4 cups sugar
2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cups buttermilk
4 cups peeled sliced peaches (from about 3 pounds)*
heavy cream (whipping cream, but don't whip it)
Preheat over to 350F. Spray a 13x9x2-inch glass baking dish with vegetable oil spray. Whisk flour, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in medium bowl. Using electric mixer, beat butter in large bowl until smooth. Gradually beat in sugar. Beat in vanilla, then eggs, 1 at a time, incorporating well after each addition. Using low speed, beat in flour mixture alternately with buttermilk in 3 additions each, beating well between additions.
Transfer batter to baking dish, spreading evenly. Arrange peach slices over batter, overlapping slightly as needed. Spray sheet of foil with vegetable oil spray; cover cake with foil, spray side down, and seal at edges. The peaches will sink to the bottom as it bakes.
Bake 45 minutes. Remove foil (some cake may stick). Bake until top is golden brown, edges are crusty, and tester inserted into center comes out clean, about 40 minutes longer. Cool 1 hour. Serve warm in a shallow bowl with cold cream poured over it.
* another recipe says you can use 1⅔ lbs. frozen sliced peaches (not in syrup, and thawed)
Per Serving: 335 Calories; 13g Fat (33.8% calories from fat); 4g Protein; 52g Carbohydrate; 2g Dietary Fiber; 67mg Cholesterol; 291mg Sodium.
Thursday, February 23, 2012
Easy Pot Roast
Tender beef with potatoes and carrots. If you have time, sear it on all sides first in a little oil. But it'll turn out fine (tender and tasty) even if you don't sear it. You can cook it in a slow cooker all day, or in the oven for a few hours.
1 beef chuck roast, 2-3 pounds, excess fat trimmed off
2 packets Lipton's Beefy Onion soup mix (or the regular onion soup mix, but the beefy is better)
2 pounds carrots, peeled and cut into bite-sized chunks
1 bag small potatoes, cut into bite-sized chunks
1 cup water or broth
Here are instructions on how to sear it, if you decide to do that: How to Sear Pot Roast
If cooking in a crockpot or slow cooker: Dump the carrots and potatoes in the slow cooker, however much of each that you want. Try other vegetables if you want. Put the chuck roast on top of the vegetables. Sprinkle the onion soup mix all over both sides of the roast. Pour in the cup of water or broth (this is plenty of liquid, in my experience). Turn the slow cooker to "low", put the lid on, and allow it to cook for 8-10 hours. I usually cook it for 10 hours and it's falling-apart tender by then.
If cooking in the oven: Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Sprinkle the onion soup mix all over the roast, then put the roast in a large baking dish (one that has a lid). Add a cup of water. Cover the dish and put it in the oven for 15 minutes. Then lower heat to 325 and cook for 3-4 hours. Put carrots and potatoes in with it in the last hour of cooking.
NOTES:
You can use whatever kind of potatoes you want but I like to get the really small potatoes (baby Dutch yellow or whatever) - they're so small all you have to do is rinse them and throw them in.
If you want to experiment with different seasonings, here are some ideas: soy sauce, chili powder, cumin, oregano, whole peppercorns, worcestershire sauce, garlic, red wine, beer, thyme, rosemary, etc.
Thursday, February 16, 2012
Chili Con Queso
Mmmmmmmm. This is a tried-and-true Texas housewife recipe. This is how much I make for potlucks and parties, so if you're not making this for a party you'll want to halve the recipe. Serve with tortilla chips.
2 pounds Velveeta
1 pound lean ground beef
1 pound pork breakfast sausage
1-2 cans Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilis (regular)
Cook the beef and the sausage in a pan and drain off the fat. Cut up the Velveeta and melt on low heat with the meat. Add Rotel tomatoes & chilis to taste. One can is probably plenty, but if you want it hotter you might need more.
Notes: Don't let the Velveeta brown. For serving, a 2-quart crockpot is the perfect size. Set it on "warm" - the low setting will probably get too hot.
My photo of chili con queso: 
Chili Con Queso
Wednesday, February 15, 2012
Stuffed Quail (or Cornish Hens)
A favorite for the holidays. My dad makes this when he has quail from a hunting trip. I often make this for Thanksgiving but I use cornish hens instead of quail. Chickens would be too big.
Speaking from experience, you can half-ass every step of this recipe and it'll still turn out really yummy as long as you don't burn anything.
If you've never made gravy before, here's a link with instructions: How to Make Gravy. For this recipe I use flour to make the gravy.
12 quail
12 slices bacon
1-2 sticks butter
1 pound pork sausage
2 cups flour
2 cups red wine (or enough to come to the top of the birds)
toothpicks or cooking twine
Stuff quail with sausage, then wrap with bacon and secure the bacon onto the birds with toothpicks or cooking twine. Season the flour with salt and pepper. Roll quail in flour. Melt butter in skillet and brown quail. Remove quail to a deep baking dish -- pack them closely together in the dish. Add flour to drippings in skillet to make brown gravy to cover birds. Add wine and pour gravy over birds. Cover pan with aluminum foil. Bake in slow oven (300 degrees) for 2-3 hours or more.
NOTES
I usually use 2-4 cornish hens, 2 slices of bacon for each bird, and maybe 1/4 pound of sausage per bird. I pretty much end up using the same amounts of the other ingredients. When you pour the wine & gravy over the birds, you should end up with liquid in the bottom of the dish - if you don't, add some more wine or some chicken broth and bring the liquid level up to about half an inch, maybe more. You don't want them to dry out.
Don't try to rush this recipe by turning the heat up higher - it'll just make them turn out tough and dry. If you follow the recipe they turn out really tender.
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Pink Grapefruit Sorbet
Two ingredients! Fresh grapefruit juice and sugar. Even my husband likes it. I got this from: Pink Grapefruit Sorbet
3 cups fresh pink grapefruit juice (about 4 grapefruits)
3/4 cup sugar
The original recipe said to heat up part of the juice and dissolve the sugar in it, etc. I just poured the juice in my blender, added the sugar, and blended it up really well. Then I poured it in my ice cream maker and followed the ice cream maker instructions. Voilá! Whenever you decide to have some, take it out of the freezer and let it sit for 10-20 minutes to soften a bit before serving.
They had quarts (4 cups) of fresh grapefruit juice at Whole Foods (don't bother with grapefruit juice that isn't fresh squeezed - it's not nearly as good). If you want to just use a whole quart, increase the sugar to 1 cup.
Calories: according to the original recipe it's 145 per 2/3 cup.
Spiced Vodka for Bloody Marys
Opal Divine's in Austin has great Bloody Marys and they use spiced vodka, so I came up with the following in an attempt to imitate theirs. Great results. I don't drink Bloody Marys that often but it keeps for a long time (store it in the fridge).
1 big bottle of a decent vodka (1.75 liters)
1 handful sun dried tomatoes (about 1.5 ounces)
1 head of garlic, separated into peeled cloves
1 tablespoon black peppercorns
1 tablespoon green peppercorns
1 tablespoon celery seed
1 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional, too much can make it quite spicy)
Sometimes I add fresh parsley or basil too.
Pour some of the vodka out into another container so you have enough room in the bottle to add stuff. Add any/all of the ingredients above. Let it steep for a week or two (might want to shake it up periodically), and then use it instead of plain vodka to make Bloody Marys.
If your grocery store has a bulk section you should be able to get the spices much cheaper than if you buy bottles of them (20 cents for celery seed, for example).
Japanese Ginger Salad Dressing
I looooove this salad dressing. Works great as a dip for fresh veggies too. I got this recipe from: Top Secret Recipes Benihana Ginger Salad Dressing
1/2 cup minced onion
1/2 cup peanut oil
1/3 cup rice wine vinegar
2 tablespoons minced fresh ginger
2 tablespoons minced celery
2 tablespoons tomato paste or ketchup
4 teaspoons soy sauce
2 teaspoons white sugar
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1/2 teaspoons minced fresh garlic
1/2 teaspoons salt
1/4 teaspoons ground black pepper
Combine everything in a blender and blend on high speed for about 30 seconds or until all of the ingredients are well-puréed.
The recipe called for ketchup, I usually use tomato paste. They have tubes of tomato paste at the grocery store. I also use whatever oil and vinegar I have handy if I don't have peanut oil and rice wine vinegar. If it turns out too strong for you (other vinegars may be stronger than rice wine vinegar), just add a little bit of water.
Makes 1 3/4 cup.
Monday, February 13, 2012
Coconut Ice Cream
So good! And so easy. Very creamy. Dairy free, too, for the lactose intolerant.
2 cans Thai Kitchen coconut milk (13.66 oz each)
1 can Coco Lopez Cream of Coconut (15 oz)
1/2 tsp salt (or to taste)
equipment: blender, ice cream maker
Blend up all three ingredients in a blender, then pour into an ice cream maker. I thought it was perfect but if you think it's too sweet, I'd add a little water and next time I'd put in less cream of coconut or more coconut milk.
Important note: there is cream of coconut, and there is coconut cream. You want cream of coconut. It's the same stuff they use to make piña coladas, and you can usually find it in the section of the grocery store where they have the drink mixes (the margarita mix and the grenadine and all that).
Variations: I made a pineapple version that was good - just blend 1 cup of pineapple, fresh or frozen, with the other ingredients. At some point I want to try pineapple, peach, and lemon. I bet blueberries would be good, too. I also made a really good vanilla-cinnamon version with 2 tsp vanilla and 1/2 tsp cinnamon.
Calories: I think a little over 300 per half cup. It's very rich. If you add a cup of pineapple, it works out to about 245 per half cup. Light coconut milk would reduce the calorie count some, too.
Guacamole
I'm told that traditionally, guacamole consists of avocados, onion, salt, and lime juice, all mashed together with a fork. I use fresh garlic instead of onion, but if I'm making some for a party I'll add onion too and some other things as well.
Most important thing when making guacamole: good avocados. I like the black-skinned ones (the green-skinned ones taste fruitier and less rich). A ripe avocado should have a little give when you squeeze it but it shouldn't be squishy. It's easiest to tell by checking the stem end. Don't bother with the sealed-in-plastic avocadoes. The packaged guacamole is ok, but it doesn't really taste anything like avocadoes - it's basically green garlic dip.
2-3 ripe avocadoes, peeled and seed removed
fresh garlic, crushed or finely minced
fresh lime juice
salt to taste
Optional additions...
finely minced onion
diced cilantro
juice from half an orange
ground cumin
Mash up the avocadoes and mix in the other ingredients to taste (start with just a little bit of each - a sprinkle of salt, a squeeze of lime juice, half a clove of garlic). I can't give exact measurements because I never measure when making guacamole, and anyway the avocados can vary in size quite a bit. The lime juice is what keeps the avocado from turning brown, so don't forget the lime juice.
If I'm making this ahead of time for a party, I'll put in a little less lime juice, and instead I'll squeeze some juice from a fresh orange all over the top of the guacamole - it keeps it from turning brown without making it too sour, and it's really good with a little orange juice in it anyway. Then when I serve it, I just stir it up to mix in the orange juice.
Tortilla Soup
A tortilla soup that has a thin broth, shredded chicken, chunky vegetables, and some green chili in it. I haven't made it recently so I don't have a photo for this blog, but I did take a stock photo of this soup awhile back: Tortilla Soup
I included some basic instructions on how to make fried tortilla strips as a garnish - my mom would make them and they didn't last long, and it gives you something to do with any extra tortillas you might have (you need some for the soup, but not many). If that's too much to deal with, maybe just some tortilla chips broken into pieces.
2 quarts of chicken broth (2 boxes)
4 chicken breasts
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 cup onion, chopped
3 corn tortillas, chopped
3-5 cloves garlic, crushed or minced
1 tablespoon cilantro, chopped
1 can of Rotel diced tomatoes & green chilis (regular or mild)
an extra can of chicken broth (in case you need more)
1 tablespoon ground cumin
2 teaspoons chili powder
cayenne powder (to taste)
1 bag of small potatoes, cut in half or quarters
5-6 carrots, peeled and sliced
half a bag of frozen corn
GARNISHES!
more vegetable oil
corn tortilla strips
chili powder, salt, and pepper for seasoning
cooking spray
shredded cheese
chunks of avocado
diced cilantro
Heat up the chicken broth in a soup pot to boiling, then reduce to a gentle simmer. Put in the chicken breasts. Simmer the chicken breasts in the chicken stock until tender enough to shred (don't boil the chicken or it'll be tougher). Probably about 15-20 minutes. Remove the chicken breasts (and any bits of fat) and set aside until they cool, then shred the chicken breasts into the chicken stock.
In a skillet, heat the oil on medium heat and sauté the onion in the oil for a few minutes, then throw in the chopped tortillas, garlic, and cilantro. Sauté 'til soft. Mix in the Rotel diced tomatoes and chilis. Then add all of this to the chicken stock in the soup pot. Add the cumin and chili powder. Add potatoes, carrots, and corn in whatever proportions you like. If the soup is too chunky add more chicken stock. Simmer 'til the veggies are done. Add cayenne to taste.
If you want fried tortilla strips as a garnish, start heating up some oil as soon as the soup is simmering. While the oil is heating up, lightly spritz some corn tortilla strips with cooking spray and sprinkle with some chili powder, salt, and maybe some black pepper. Fry them in the hot oil and drain on paper towels.
Serve the soup with shredded cheese, chunks of avocado, fried tortilla strips, and minced cilantro.
Saturday, February 11, 2012
Lentil Soup
I make this soup periodically and store it in the freezer in servings, so that I can just pull a serving out of the freezer and heat it up for lunch (I do the same with the Awesome Rice). Makes about 7 cups, about 200 calories per cup.
2 tablespoons olive oil or bacon fat
1 cup diced carrot
1 cup diced celery
1 cup diced shallot
2 cloves garlic, minced or crushed
1 box chicken broth (4 cups)
1 can diced tomatoes (14.5 oz)
1 1/4 cup lentils
1/2 cup fresh spinach
1/4 cup fresh parsley
salt & pepper & Lawry's Seasoned Salt
In a large pot, heat up the oil (if using bacon fat, you can just cook some bacon in the pot, eat the bacon, and reserve 2 T of the rendered fat). Saute the carrot, celery, shallot, and garlic in the oil or bacon fat for 15 minutes or until the vegetables start to brown. Add the chicken broth, lentils, and tomatoes and bring to a boil. Reduce heat to a simmer and cook for about 35-40 minutes until the lentils are tender. Add the spinach and the parsley in the last 15 minutes of cooking. Season to taste with salt, pepper, and/or Lawry's Seasoned Salt.
Thursday, February 9, 2012
Pickled Shrimp (or Vegetables)
Marinated shrimp. This makes a great appetizer, party food, or potluck item. People gobble them up. I have made it with vegetables instead of shrimp too and it was also really good (and very colorful, too) - I put that recipe below. I haven't tried it with shrimp *and* veggies but I imagine it's probably fine to do that.
Mom says it's better to use small shrimp, if you use big ones you might want to halve them, and that they have cooked shrimp at Central Market if you'd like to skip the cooking step. Make it a few days in advance for the best flavor, and so that the onions mellow a bit (you can eat the onions too, once pickled they're not too strong).
2 pounds raw shrimp, peeled and cleaned
2 medium onions, sliced
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp salt
1 1/2 tsp celery seed
4 Tbsp capers with juice
1 Tbsp Worcestershire sauce
Place shrimp in boiling water for 3-5 minutes. Drain and rinse. Alternate layers of shrimp and onion rings in a sealable container. Mix remaining ingredients and pour over the shrimp and onions. Seal and place it in the refrigerator. Shake or invert occasionally, for several days. Remove shrimp from marinade and serve.
For the container, I use a big glass jar with a handle that I got at the Container Store for about $7.
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If doing vegetables instead of shrimp:
1 red onion, sliced (instead of the two onions listed above)
1 red bell pepper, bite sized pieces
1 yellow bell pepper, bite sized pieces
2 carrots, peeled and sliced
2-4 stalks celery, sliced
1 greenhouse cucumber, sliced
1 can artichoke hearts (quartered), drained
1 1/2 cups vegetable oil
1 1/2 cups white vinegar
1/2 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoon celery seed
4 tablespoons capers with juice
1 tablespoons Worcestershire sauce
Optional additions:
2-3 garlic cloves, sliced or minced
fresh parsley
green olives
juice of 2 lemons
You'll end up with a colorful assortment of veggies. If you don't like one of the veggies listed just leave it out or try adding different ones. Since they're pickled they should keep for at least a week in the fridge, so it's great if you want to eat more veggies but don't have a lot of time to prepare them. Just eat them as they are, or dump them on lettuce for a quick salad (the marinade makes a good salad dressing). I bet they'd also be great mixed with pasta for a pasta salad.
Wednesday, February 8, 2012
Tapenade
After having yummy green olive tapenade at a fancy restaurant I looked up a bunch of recipes for tapenade and came up with the following. I love olives and find this stuff addictive. Use your favorite kind of olives (mine happen to be… ordinary green cocktail olives, but I remove the pimiento for this recipe). The first time I made this I used mixed Greek olives, and it was super good.
1 cup of pitted green olives (or whatever kind of olives is your favorite)
1 tablespoon drained capers (can't be tapenade without capers)
1 large garlic clove, crushed
1-2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 tablespoon fresh parsley, diced
black pepper to taste
Rinse the olives or it'll be super salty. Chop or blend everything except the olive oil in a blender or mini chopper. Once it's nearly chopped to the desired texture, start adding in the olive oil a little at a time to make it a bit smoother in consistency. Makes about a cup, which is usually enough for a party. Serve with crackers or bread.
Calories: about 25 per tablespoon.
Some of the recipes call for a dash of cognac or brandy - I haven't tried this but it could be good.
I haven't but you could try some other fresh herbs: basil, thyme, rosemary, oregano, etc.
Awesome Rice
It smells like Thanksgiving. Mmmm! It also freezes well. Makes 7 cups, about 260 calories per cup.
1 cup wild rice
1 cup brown rice
1 box chicken broth (32 oz or 4 cups)
1 Wyler's chicken bouillon cube plus 1 cup water, or another cup of chicken broth
1/2 cup carrots, peeled and diced
1/2 cup celery, diced
1/2 cup onion, diced
handful or two of fresh parsley, diced
3 tablespoons of butter (you can use less, but the more butter… the more awesome)
Put everything in a rice cooker and turn it on. Or cook everything the same way you'd cook brown rice.
NOTES
I guess it's a little weird to call for chicken broth and one cube of chicken bouillon, but it's more convenient for me than opening another can of chicken broth, plus I like the flavor better. But by all means feel free to just use 5 cups of chicken broth. Or you could use 5 bouillon cubes with 5 cups water.
I have a rice cooker - it has two settings, "warm" and "cook". To turn it off, you unplug it. I combine all of the ingredients in the rice cooker, turn it to cook, and it does its thing and at some point it'll switch automatically to warm. Then you can leave it on warm until you're ready to eat. Totally great. Highly recommended. If you don't have a rice cooker, the brown rice package should have instructions on how to cook brown rice (or you could google it) - just follow those instructions.
If you'd like a different wild-rice-to-brown-rice ratio, mix it up however you like to make 2 cups of rice total or just use 2 cups brown rice. Or you could try any of the fancy rices, like red rice or black rice (PS: when cooked, black rice is purple!). If you'd rather use white rice, it'll work but dice the veggies finer because they won't have as long to cook (white rice takes less time to cook than brown rice).
Five Grain Granola
I read over a bunch of granola recipes and came up with the following. I'm very happy with the results and it smells SO good. I eat it with yogurt or Kefir. If you'd rather use just oats or just can't find the five grain cereal flakes, rolled oats work just fine.
6 cups Sunridge Farms five grain cereal flakes or rolled oats
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp kosher salt (maybe a tad more)
1 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
1/2 cup honey
1/4 cup walnut oil (or whatever vegetable oil you like)
1/2 cup almonds
1/2 cup pecans
1 cup mixed dried fruit (raisins, cranberries, pineapple, papaya, etc)
1/4 cup coconut flakes
Mix the grains, cinnamon, brown sugar, and salt together in a large mixing bowl. Mix the vanilla, honey, and walnut oil together in a separate bowl. Then mix the liquid ingredients with the grain mixture in the large mixing bowl.
Spread out on 2 large baking sheets in a thin even layer, and toast in a 300 degree oven for 20 minutes (up to 30 minutes but watch it so it doesn't burn). Toast the nuts and the coconut as well, but separately from the grain mixture because the coconut gets toasted quite quickly, and you'll be chopping up the nuts after they're toasted. But, you can probably toast the nuts at the same time and for the same length of time as the grain mixture. Stir the grain mixture a bit after toasting to prevent it from clumping too much. Allow to cool. Chop up the nuts. Then mix in the nuts, fruit, and coconut.
There is a site that'll analyze recipes for you, but I couldn't find the calorie count for the five grain cereal flakes, so I just did a calorie count for old fashioned rolled oats, and I think it works out to about 315 calories per 3/4 cup (which is quite enough granola for breakfast).
The recipe analyzer page: Calorie Count Recipe Analyzer
If you reduce the fruit to half a cup, it'll reduce the calories a little bit, I think about 300 per 3/4 cup. But I wanted more fruit. Calorie count is a guesstimate anyway.
Also - toasted coconut flakes are really, really good (delicate and crispy and delicious) but I didn't put much in because it'd raise the calorie count too much. But if you don't care, go for it and add more.
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