Healthy and delicious eats

The latest and greatest in my quest for healthy cooking and eating:

As some of you know, I am participating in a “cleanse” of sorts. Don’t get alarmed. It does not involve cayenne or lemon juice or inhumane digestive craziness. But, it does involve avoiding cheese, meat, gluten, alcohol, sugar and other foods that make life worth living. I started this on Monday and I have actually been eating really, really delicious food! As I have mentioned on this blog before, one of my favorite cook books is Super Natural Cooking and I have been making recipes from this book a lot lately. The two recipes below are from this book and both are quite delicious and easy for weeknight meals. Enjoy!

Brown Rice, Garbanzo Beans, and Asparagus Salad with Tofu “Cream” Sauce

This is easy! Make a bunch of brown rice in the rice cooker (or wherever). While the rice is cooking chop one medium sized onion, three cloves garlic, and one large bunch of asparagus (about one inch pieces). Drain one can of garbanzo beans. In a large skillet, heat up enough olive oil to coat the pan (the inside of the pan – of courseJ). Add the beans and sauté until crackling and hot. Maybe 7 minutes? Add the onion and garlic and sauté until the onion is soft. Add the asparagus and cover the pan for a few minutes, until the asparagus is beautifully bright green. I am sure I added some sea seal somewhere in here. I probably added it several times to be honest. I never pass up an opportunity to add sea salt. Add in the rice and you are done, baby, done!
Now for the sauce – add to a blender: approximately 8 ounces tofu (silken would probably be best but I used firm and it was fine), a few tbsp water, a smashed cloves of garlic, juice from half a lemon, and sea salt. I blended it all together and added more of the ingredients to taste. It ends up kind of tasting like a lighter version of hummus. Mix into the salad and eat. Yumsters!

Brown Rice Bowl

Make brown rice. Great. Next…sauté thin tofu slabs on a nonstick skillet. I didn’t use an oil or anything and it was great. Heat until browned but still fluffy. Add to the rice. Add half an avocado, sesame seeds, a couple sliced green onions, and some dried seaweed to the rice bowl. Now you will make the sauce – Put into a small sauce pan the juice of one entire orange and half a lemon with two tablespoons sugar. Heat until it reaches a light boil. Add two tablespoons brown rice vinegar and two tablespoons soy sauce. Again heat until it reaches a gentle boil. Add the zest for the orange and lemon used before. Whisk, add to the rice bowl and enjoy the citrus deliciousness.

Simple White Bean dish

Last night I made a simple white bean dish that I got from one of my favorite new cookbooks, Super Natural Cooking. The recipe below is from this book with a couple of my own adjustments.

Making beans:
I have never actually bought dried beans before and made them myself, but this was so easy and cheap and delicious that I will probably start doing this all the time. Soak the beans overnight, or at least for five hours. After soaking, rinse them and put in a large pot. Add enough water to cover the beans by at least two or three times the volume of the beans. Add a chopped onion, carrot, and/or celery. You can also cook the beans without these extra veggies but I think they
make the beans even more yummy! Let the beans simmer until the tender. For the little white beans I used for this recipe it took about 50 minutes. Depending on the size and type of bean it could take much longer to cook. Once the beans only have about 15 minutes left, add a generous amount of sea salt to the simmering pot. You don’t want to add the salt too early or it will make the beans disintegrate a bit. Once they are done drain the beans and veggies together.

Little white bean dish:
Get a large frying pan and melt a hearty chunk of butter (about two tablespoons) in the pan. Add the beans in a single layer and let them fry. Cook for about 3 to 4 minutes on medium high heat on each side. You want the beans to get nice and crispy. At first I thought, why does it have to be a single layer? Well, the beans get crustier with a single layer and that means it is more delicious! Salt to taste. After the beans are nice and crusty add one chopped onion and 4 or 5 chopped cloves of garlic. Sautee until the onions get soft. Add 6 big leaves of chard. The chard stem should be chopped and the leaf cut into thin strips. Sautee until the chard has wilted,
not too long. That is it! When I was sautéing the onions with the beans I thought things were getting a little dry so I added some olive oil. Feel free to add it at any point during the process. Enjoy!

How to make mini ice cream cups at a restaurant

In the same category as the microwaveable chocolate cake - probably gross, but fun to try! Special note to Cristin: you will not like this.

Step 1
Go out to eat at any restaurant with the word "waffle" or "pancake" in their name, and/or serving bacon strips in the morning. Many diners, sit-down places at truck stops, and some fast food places. Home will work, too, if you have some of the mini half-n-half cups.

Step 2

Order water. You need two big glasses on the table. Drink all the water. The server will bring water to you right away and usually you won't have to order it. Tell them you are thirsty and would like a big glass. Two big glasses at the table are necessary. You need ice water, not just water. Crushed ice is better. But cubes work too. You need two glasses of ice water for this. Don't order extra ice in your glass, the normal half ice and half water is best. Drink all the water. It's good for you! After drinking the water. you now have 2 big glasses each half filled with ice. Empty ice from one glass to another.

Read the rest here!

Spinach Salad

This is one of my favorite salads. Because it is made with spinach and not lettuce it actually saves pretty well and can be eaten the next day. Yum!

One bag spinach
One navel orange
One avocado

Salad Dressing
2 Tbs rice (or white wine) vinegar
1 Tbs veggie oil
1 tsp sesame oil (or more, if you like)
2 tsp grated ginger
3 or 4 chopped scallions
salt

Whisk salad dressing ingredients together. Add salt to taste.

Chop orange and avocado in big chunks. Add to spinach. Pour dressing over salad. Toss well and serve. Enjoy!

Easy Beef Stroganoff

I haven't actually made this yet, but it looks awesome and easy and this used to be one of my favorite dishes - I have no good reason why I stopped making it years ago. Recipe from here.

6 Tbsp butter
1 pound of top sirloin or tenderloin, cut thin into 1-inch wide by 2 1/2-inch long strips
1/3 cup chopped shallots (can substitute onions)
1/2 pound cremini mushrooms, sliced
Salt to taste
Pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon nutmeg
1/2 teaspoon of dry tarragon or 2 teaspoons of chopped fresh tarragon
1 cup of sour cream at room temperature

Melt 3 Tbsp of butter in a large skillet on medium heat. Increase the heat to high/med-high and add the strips of beef. You want to cook the beef quickly, browning on each side, so the temp needs to be high enough to brown the beef, but not so high as to burn the butter. You may need to work in batches. While cooking the beef, sprinkle with some salt and pepper. When both sides are browned, remove the beef to a bowl and set aside.

In the same pan, reduce the heat to medium and add the shallots. Cook the shallots for a minute or two, allowing them to soak up any meat drippings. Remove the shallots to the same bowl as the meat and set aside.

In the same pan, melt another 3 Tbsp of butter. Increase heat to medium high and add the mushrooms. Cook, stirring occasionally for about 4 minutes. While cooking, sprinkle the nutmeg and the tarragon on the mushrooms.

Reduce the heat to low and add the sour cream to the mushrooms. You may want to add a tablespoon or two of water to thin the sauce (or not). Mix in the sour cream thoroughly. Do not let it come to a simmer or boil or the sour cream will curdle. Stir in the beef and shallots. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Serve immediately over egg noodles, fettucine, potatoes, or rice. (Potatoes, rice, and wheat-free pasta are wheat-free options.)

Serves 4.

Pierogi Lazy-Man Style

It's cold and rainy outside.  I had a hankering for lots and lots of starch.  Where can you get both of these in mass quantities?  Potatoes and pasta.  To make everything even less healthy toss in some butter, shredded cheddar cheese, and sour cream.  Now you are talking.

How to make ghetto pierogi:

Ingredients:

Half a pound of dried lasagna noodles

2-3 lbs of red potatoes, washed and quartered with the skin left on.

Sour Cream

1 stick of butter

1-2 White Onions, cut into rings

1.5 cups Cheddar Cheese, shredded

Milk

How To:

Put the taters in a pot with enough cold salted water to cover.  Bring to a boil, and let 'em rip for about 10-15 minutes, or at least until you can easily poke 'em with a fork.

While the potatoes are cooking, boil some water and cook the lasagna noodles according to the package directions.  Drain and cool off to the side or under cold water.

Pre-heat oven to 350˚

In a large sauce-pan over Med/Med-low heat melt the entire stick of butter, then add the onions and saute until they are limp (can't hold their shape).

Once the potatoes are done, drain them and then MASH!  I use a big old spoon, you could use an immersion blender or food processor, however you want to do it.  Add all of the shredded cheddar cheese, a half-cup of sour cream or some milk.  Add some pepper and salt.  Taste.  Does it taste good? Yeah, awesome, keep on going.  If not, what does it need?  Bacon? Sure, why not.  Throw some chopped bacon in or chives, it's your mashed potatoes.

Time to make the monstrosity.  Put a little bit of the butter and onion mix on the bottom of a greased pan, so that it will be non-stick.  Add a layer of lasagna noodles (probably 3).  Dump some mashed potatoes on top, spread around with gigantic wooden spoon.  layer some more onions and butter.  Repeat!  The top layer should be lasagna noodles covered by more butter and onions.  You could also spread some more cheese on top if you want or bread crumbs, but I like to keep it simple with onion and butter.

Bake for 30 minutes!

Let cool a bit, then cut big slices and serve with pan-fried kielbasa, saurkraut and mustard.

MMMMMM, starchy cold-weather food.

I also like to take the ghetto-pierogi and fry in more butter after it has been cooked to make it extra crispy, but that is just me.

Fried Sage Leaves

As a garnish, I fried fresh sage leaves in a little bit of olive oil in a skillet. I wouldn't fry them longer then 30 seconds, as they might burn. But, getting them to a slightly crunchy texture is key. be sure to have some paper towels ready to blot out the excess oil.

These literally melt in your mouth and can be used to garnish so many dishes!