Total Success

Today was meat free Monday, so I wanted to make something unique and tasty - but vegetarian. After a trip to Trader Joe's I decided on veggie tacos. Here's what made up our veggie taco bar:

Flour Tortillas
"Mexican" shredded cheese
Cilantro Lime Basmati Brown Rice (say that 3 times in a row!)
Light Sour Cream
Lettuce
"Fried" onions and red peppers (basically sauteed in olive oil fast and hot)
Corn & Black Bean Salsa.

Everyone loved it. I was so happy! No one complained, everyone got what they wanted. It's was bliss. (sorry I have no pictures, the food flew by!)

Let me tell you about 2 main ingredients listed above -- the Cilantro Lime Basmati Brown Rice and the Corn & Black Bean Salsa.

The rice come from the Jamie Oliver Food Revolution Cook Book. He has a recipe for "perfect" rice. I will admit right now, I didn't follow it. His recipe involves washing the rice, put it in boiling water, draining it and putting more water in. I have had difficulty with rice. I needed measurements. You won't hear me say that often. I stuck with the instructions on the bag - 2 cups water, 1 cup washed rice - and ran with it. It was perfect enough for me - given my past rice incidents. After cooking the rice I added zest from one lime, a bunch of chopped cilantro, lime juice from the zested lime and a little olive oil. Great. Everyone, and I do mean EVERYONE loved it. Phew....

One more thing about rice. I always used brown. I see no reason for white - honestly. Brown rice still has the bran and SOME nutrients. White rice is just filler. I will always use brown when possible.

Corn & Black Bean Salsa. I love Salsa. I love love love salsa. In fact, I love it so much, much of my garden this summer is dedicated to growing the ingredients for salsa. I like it on chips. I like it on tacos. I love it on eggs. It's like the perfect condiment. I love traditional tomato salsa, I love tomatillo salsa. I love Corn & Black Bean Salsa. How much does it normally cost? Buy a jar for $4 usually. Did you know you can make like 5 jars worth for $4??? Yes! you can! Here's what I did.

Take these ingrediants and throw them in a large-ish bowl

1 Bag Frozen Sweet Corn (or I like the roasted smoky flavor frozen corn from Trader Joe's)
1 Can of Black beans, drained & rinsed well
1 Can of Diced Tomatoes (I like the ones that have chiles or spice added already)
lots of chopped cilantro
Salt
Pepper
Juice from one lime
Heat as desired (ie jalepenos, habeneros etc. I went mild since I thought the kids might eat it)

Let the flavors blend for a while. Since the corn is frozen, I leave it out for a few hours to defrost, then put it in the fridge for storing. Great cheap tasty snack. Take it to parties or eat at home! Of course, my mind was reeling with the thoughts of using all fresh stuff this summer.

I Want Chicken Tonight, Chicken Tonight

7 times out of 10, when I ask Rob what he wants for dinner, he starts singing "I want chicken tonight, chicken tonight." Naturally, this is not very helpful, but then, neither are the other 3 times out of 10 when he says "orzo!" Sigh... one can make only so many orzo dishes. However, this ultimately means that I can make whatever I want, which is definitely helpful.



I don't make a lot of chicken. When I was living by myself as a first year grad student and as a new cook, I probably made chicken 30 different ways (mainly varying the 'sauce'). I sort of became sick and tired of chicken, unless it's roasted (pre-brined, of course) or drowning in sauce (as in chicken pot pie or enchiladas). Tonight I was haunted by a flashback - I had to make 'cooked chicken breasts'. So, unlike my younger attempts with chicken that lacked flavor depth, I decided to sear them in olive oil, encrusted with salt and pepper. Thankfully, that did the trick.

The meat is then is shredded for a southwestern style Chicken, Rice, and Black-Bean Salad from Everyday Food Magazine. Like Rachel Ray, Everyday Food recipes are hit and miss. This one, however, went above my fairly low expectations. Why? Well, how can any 'southwestern style' salad with black beans and tomatoes NOT include lime juice, cilantro or avocado. I had serious reservations. The only spice was cumin, and the only dressing was white wine vinegar and olive oil. Sounds positively boring. Plus, the plum tomatoes were not looking so hot - rather unripe (see photo). I was absolutely wrong - it was really really good and I haven't a clue as to why. I'll make this one again for sure.

Grown Up Dinner

Tuesday is always a busy day. Usually my daughter has dance and my son swims. Dance is from 5-6, swimming 5:45-7. Not a lot of time to cook.

Today we made a quick and easy dinner for the kids (no swimming, so they ate after my daughters dance) which was just tomato soup and crackers. Nothing fancy. Just easy.

For us, I wanted something good, but easy, and healthy. While at her dance, I pulled out my iPod and ran the "Dinner Spinner". I put in Chicken, as a main dish and in less than 45 mins. Lots of recipes caught my eye. But there was only one I had everything for. It was called "Simply Parmesan Chicken". As I was making this I was thinking how nice it is to have things now that I am cooking so much. Instead of regular breadcrumbs, I had panko! I used Tuscan Sunset Italian seasoning from Penzeys.

My accompanying dish was a basmati rice blend from Trader Joes.  (Are you seeing a pattern here? Trader Joes, Penzey's etc...). A very easy, quick and tasty meal. The chicken was very, very good.

Stuffed Peppers, Vegetarian Style

I remember when I was little my mom would make stuffed peppers. They were good. I don't remember TOO much about them, other than there was meat in them. In my neverending quest to find a GOOD vegetarian meal that all of us will like, I decided to give this a go. This recipe comes from our featured cook, Rachael Ray ( I PROMISE, no more RR recipes for a while - I can't commit for too long).  Tonight we have Southwestern Stuffed Peppers. The vegetarian likes rice, onions & green peppers, so I can't miss right? Well, luckily he liked it ok, my daughter not so much. (just thinking about this makes me want to rip my hair out!). I did make a few changes to the recipe. Mainly, I forgot the cilantro so we didn't have any. I didn't mention it to the others in the house, because they probably would have been angry about this. We are a cilantro lovin' house.

I did happen to have a little sour cream left over from my Salmon Pasta, so I added that on top. The boy doesn't like sour cream - I think it's because of the word "sour". I wouldn't touch it either when I was his age. But then I became enlightened to the fact that it's not sour, but is cream.

But I digress. I also added a little cheese. I had some Trader Joes shredded mozz, Monterrey Jack and cheddar blend, so I sprinkled it on top hoping to make it more appealing. Oh, finally, I added a little cumin when I cooked the onions. I think the only thing disappointing in this meal was the fact that it used a jar taco sauce. I think I would have liked it better if the seasonings we fresher - rather than from a jar. Perhaps using a Penzey's Taco blend or something might do the trick.

Overall,  we liked it.

Oh yeah, David added some Tobasco. Surprise?

One last fun fact from this meal. The kids really FINALLY realized that we are branching out and trying more things. Last night my son said "you sure are makings lots of fancy things. you've been making souffle's and all sorts of fancy stuff. ". I haven't made one souffle yet. Perhaps I will!

Eat Your Heart Out, Columbus

Columbus may have 'discovered' America, but I have recently uncovered TWO new things about myself and food. Looks like I win.

I love satisfying salads (those that contain much more than greens). I also love chickpeas. So it's only natural that I would want to make this recipe: Brown Rice and Chickpea Salad from Cooks Illustrated. Being as how it's a Cooks recipe, it's kind of a pain in the ass (fussy), but it was worth it. This was the first time that I've ever used dried chickpeas. Yes, the canned variety worked just fine in the past, why mess with tradition? Well, the only recipes I try to stick to very carefully are those from Cooks. I respect the scientific process and they work hard to determine the best way to fix something. Fine. Dried chickpeas. Soak them for many hours (I remembered ahead of time - yay!), and wait, what's this? I tasted one and huh... these are actually pretty good as is once they've been soaked... [tried a second handful] hmm... nutty, creamy... nothing like those that come out of a can [tried some more]... Oh crap, now I'm going to have to soak chickpeas from here on out [grumble... tasting more] because I could have eaten them all raw. Who knew? Cooks did I suppose.


Anyway, back to the recipe. The salad has a curry-basil sauce that is especially tasty, and you top with toasted almonds (do *not* skip the toasted almonds). This would make a great take-along lunch. Except that Rob is currently busy scarfing down the rest.

I am pleased to announce that I have discovered THE best and easiest way to cook kale. It should have been obvious to me to roast kale since I cook nearly everything else this way. So why didn't I think of this already? Crispy Sesame Kale from the Vegan Yum Yum cookbook. The cookbook is really great, and her blog is beautifully scrumptious, so check them both out. Toss the kale with some dark sesame oil and sesame seeds, and throw into the oven for 10 min. Easy, healthy and insanely delicious.