Monday, February 6, 2012

Taco Party!

  If you live in a mixed household (aka meat eaters & non), might I suggest always keeping on hand taco fixin's?  Tacos are just about the easiest thing in the world to whip up, especially on a weeknight when you don't feel like slaving over a stove/oven for hours on end.  My husband has told me on several occasions that there's nothing that can't be stuffed into a taco shell-he's even made turkey leftovers into tacos.

  Last night, which just so happened to also be Superbowl Sunday, we had a taco fiesta.  I boiled an entire chicken with some herbs and veggies that I had on hand (carrots, celery, onion, garlic, and parsley) for an hour (put the veggies in the pot, place the chicken on top of the veggies, fill the pot with enough water to just cover the chicken, bring to a boil & reduce to a simmer...simmer with the lid cracked slightly to prevent boil over).  I then removed the chicken from the water & shredded it.  I tossed it with spices and the chicken was good to go. 

  I grilled up some peppers and onions on my stove-top grill, until they were caramelized and tender as well.  And for my black bean tacos, I opened a can of organic black beans, drained them & tossed them with the same spices as the chicken.  I then heated them up in the microwave for about 2 mins.

  For the fixins, I sliced up an avocado, pulled out the sour cream, shredded sharp cheddar cheese, chopped cilantro, tomato salsa, and hot sauce.  I also like to keep corn tortillas and 10" flour tortillas on hand (just in case we don't feel like making a creative meal), so I pulled those out and heated them up too.

  What's great about taco night is the fact that you can customize your own tacos, filling the shells with only the ingredients you like.  My husband and his friend had chicken tacos, and I was satisfied with black bean, avocado & pepper tacos.

  Like I said before, don't limit yourself to traditional fillings either.  We've done turkey tacos with stuffing & cranberry sauce.  Breakfast tacos are in regular rotation for dinner.  Sometimes when I'm feeling lazy (or haven't gone grocery shopping in ages), I'll just do cheese tacos with veggies and hot sauce.  The sky is really the limit with these.


Avocado, black bean & pepper tacos-ole!

Saturday, February 4, 2012

Pizza Revisited

So I didn't exactly have this for dinner, but my friend, Donna, gave me this amazing variation on my pizza post from earlier this week.  She suggested a breakfast pizza, which I've done before, although savory, not sweet.  The pizza is currently sitting on my counter, cooling off before I devour it.  Try it for yourself & let me know what you think!

Sweet Breakfast Pizza

1 recipe of pizza dough (or one bag of TJ's ready made pizza dough)
1 small container marscapone cheese
1/3 cup milk
2 tablespoons vanilla extract (do yourself a favor and get the real stuff, no imitation, please)
1/4 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg (or store bought if you're fresh out of fresh)
1 T ground cinnamon + more for sprinkling
maple syrup
1 1/2 cups grilled fresh pineapple
1 cup walnut pieces (or any other kind of nut)

Preheat your oven to 400 degrees with the rack in the center.  Roll out the pizza dough to 12-16 inches (depending on how thick you like your crust) and place on a lightly oiled pizza sheet.

In a small bowl, combine marscapone cheese, vanilla, milk, cinnamon, and nutmeg until light and smooth (think cream cheese frosting consistency).  Sprinkle a light layer of cinnamon on top of the pizza dough.  Dollop the cheese mixture evenly over the pizza dough. Top with grilled pineapple and walnuts.  Drizzle the maple syrup sparingly over the top of everything.

Bake for 20-25 minutes, until the crust is golden brown and the cheese has melted.  Let cool slightly from molten.

That's a sweet lookin pizza!!!  Am I right?!

Friday, February 3, 2012

Tofu: It's What's for Dinner

Tofu has always baffled me just a little.  The texture, the smell, the bland taste, the fact that they take a green soybean & ferment it into this white block-I just don't get it.  GMOs are an entirely different issue that we'll steer clear of for now, but let's just say for the record that if I do buy tofu, it's organic, sprouted tofu.  Tonight's dinner consisted of the white blocky stuff.  This recipe has become a staple in our family because 1) it's super fast (like dinner in less than 15 mins fast) and 2) my major meat eater of a husband can't get enough of this stuff, another of life's facts that I just don't understand.  You can serve it with rice or noodles, but we prefer to eat it plain.

  For the record, as with most of my recipes, the vegetables that you use will depend on what you like and what you have on hand.  I first came across this recipe during a Williams-Sonoma complimentary Sunday cooking class, highly recommended if you've got a store in your area.  The original recipe calls for cabbage, spinach & tofu, drizzled in a spicy peanut sauce.  Last night's version had white mushrooms added to it because that's what we had in the fridge.  It is worth noting that, while you can steam just about any vegetable your heart desires, what will change is the steam time.  Woody vegetables (like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, etc) will take a lot more time than softer vegetables (like peppers, mushrooms, cabbage, etc).  It's definitely worth experimenting with.

Steamed Tofu and Vegetables with a Spicy Peanut Sauce

1/2 head of green cabbage, roughly chopped
2 cups baby spinach
1 pkg white mushrooms, cleaned and quartered
1 pkg extra firm tofu, drained and cut into 1" cubes
1/2 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup creamy peanut butter
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon fresh lime juice
3 tablespoons sesame oil
1 tablespoon sriracha (rooster) hot sauce
1/2 cup water

Gently mix the tofu and soy sauce in a medium bowl.  Cover and let marinate at least 20 mins.

Fill a medium/large pot with about 1" of water.  Place a steamer basket inside the pot, cover the lid and let the water come to a soft boil (you should see steam escaping the lid).  Place the cabbage inside the steam basket and steam for 5 mins.  Place the spinach and mushrooms on top of the cabbage and continue to steam 3 more mins.  Remove the tofu from the marinade, reserving the soy sauce, and place on top of the vegetables.  Let steam 5 more minutes, until the tofu is heated.

In the meantime, combine the reserved soy sauce, peanut butter, vinegar, lime juice, sesame oil, sriracha and water in a food processor until smooth.  Taste the sauce and adjust the spices to your liking.

Plate the tofu & vegetables, drizzling with peanut sauce right before serving.


Weekend meal extraordinaire

P.S.  If you've got some peanut sauce left over, it makes a really great dipping sauce for other things like the carrot sticks pictured above.  Just resist the temptation to eat it straight from the container with a spoon, as it would be poor manners.

Thursday, February 2, 2012

Cheater Veggie Pizza

  For dinner on day 1 we made pizza.  My husband is a total carnivore (claims he may die without meat), so I did half the pizza with pepperoni instead of olives (he loathes olives; I don't get it).  I'm calling it a cheater pizza because I didn't make the dough from scratch, which I normally do.  The absolute best recipe for pizza dough that I've found came with my Kitchenaid mixer (recipe below), mostly because it turns out perfect every time I make it and it's super fast to make (as far as bread goes).  On occasion, however, I do get lazy and go with my good ol' standby, Trader Joe's ready made pizza dough.  What I like about it is that it's a fresh dough that comes in a bag, not in a pop tube like cinnamon rolls.  This means that it's got a very short shelf life, but it also means that it doesn't have a ton of preservatives and other junk that I don't want to eat.  It's also just over a dollar for enough dough to make a 16" thin crust pizza (or 4 individual kid sized pizzas).

  Last night, I went the TJ route and topped it with (TJ) marinara sauce (TJ) Quattro Formaggi cheese blend (TJ), fresh mozzarella balls, fresh spinach, frozen 3 pepper blend, kalamata olives (on half), and pepperoni (on the other half).  I highly suggest pre-baking the crust for about 5-7 minutes, though, because we didn't & ended up with under baked dough, especially in the middle of the pizza.  If you're making smaller pizzas (dividing the dough in half or in quarters), you probably don't need to pre-bake the dough since the surface area is smaller.  You can also bake the pizza at a higher temperature than the 250 that the Trader Joe's directions indicate.  I think by baking it at 375 or 400, you wouldn't run the risk of soggy, doughy middle.  The pizza had such great flavors from the different components that I didn't miss having meat on it.  You can pretty much put any topping you can think of on a pizza (veggie or not); the sky is really the limit.  In fact, at Duke's Alehouse in Crystal Lake, they make a seasonal Vietnamese Banh Mi pizza that I'm sort of dying to try.

If you're ready to try your hand at a homemade pizza, here's the dough recipe.  This dough is pretty plain, so I've used it to make other things such as bread sticks and monkey bread.  Don't limit yourself to just pizza and sell yourself short.


Kitchenaid's Basic Pizza Dough Recipe

  • 1 (¼ ounce) package active dry yeast 
  • 1 cup warm water (about 120, just warm to the touch.  If it's too warm, the yeast won't bloom) 
  • ½ teaspoon salt 
  • 2 teaspoons olive oil 
  • 2 ½-3 ½ cups all purpose flour

Directions


  1. Dissolve yeast in warm water in warmed bowl.
  2. Add salt, olive oil, and 2 1/2 cup flour.
  3. Attach bowl and dough hook, turn to speed 2 and mix 1 minute.
  4. Continuing on speed 2, add remaining flour, 1/2 cup at a time, until dough clings to dough hook and cleans sides of bowl. Knead on speed 2 for 2 minutes.
  5. Place in greased bowl, turning to grease top.
  6. Cover, let rise in warm place until doubled in bulk (about 1 hour).
  7. Punch dough down.
  8. Brush 16 inch pizza pan with oil.
  9. Press dough across bottom of pan forming collar around edge to hold filling Top with fillings and bake at 450°F for 15 to 20 minutes.
It's pizza time!

Off to a Great Start! (Breakfast Smoothies)

Alright, day one is in the books, not without a few temptations, however.  For breakfast, I made a blueberry spinach smoothie.  I know that spinach in a smoothie sounds like a bad idea, but actually the flavor of the spinach is pretty delicate, easily masked by the stronger flavors of pretty much any fruit that it's paired with.  I try to have either a smoothie or a bowl of whole grain, high fiber hot cereal (with fruit & a little honey) every day.  I find that the fiber in both of these helps to get me to lunch without searching the office kitchen for something else to snack on.

  My smoothie recipe is really basic & pretty easy to switch fruits in or out, depending on availability and personal taste.  The easiest thing to do is just pick up a couple of bags of frozen fruit when you're grocery shopping & just keep them in the freezer.  If I use milk, I try to use whole milk that is raw or organic milk that's pasteurized at a low temperature (Kalona Super Natural is the only organic milk brand that I know of that does low temp. pasteurization).  Vitamins are fat soluble, so if you use skim milk, there are far less vitamins than whole milk.  I know that there are plenty of people who would argue that whole milk is full of fat, but I don't really eat much junk food (if any) on a regular basis, so I justify my whole milk as my "junk food."  If you're going to use honey in your smoothies, or at all for that matter, make sure that it's raw, unfiltered and local, like within 100 miles of your home.  Honey has some great anti seasonal allergy properties since real local honey contains small amounts of pollen in it, sort of the same concept as a vaccine (if you ingest small amounts of the allergen material, your body builds up an immunity to it).  Smoothies take less than 5 mins to make, so they're a great make & go breakfast for days that I'm running late.

Basic Smoothie Recipe

1 cup spinach (or a decent sized handful)
1 cup frozen fruit (if you use strawberries or something with really big chunks, I suggest microwaving them for about 25 seconds to thaw them just a little)
3/4 cup liquid (milk, soy milk, almond milk, fruit juice, just something to get the frozen stuff moving)
1-2 teaspoons raw unfiltered local honey (or more to taste)
1/3 cup almonds (optional)
1 teaspoon cinnamon or freshly grated ginger (optional, depending on the fruit blend)

Throw all the ingredients into a food processor, blender, or blend with a stick blender until smooth and blended (you shouldn't be able to see big pieces of spinach).  Pour into a travel mug & run out the door.

Before:  Frozen blueberries, spinach, honey & milk
After:  Smoothie goodness