Good cookin'

I had another busy week...and guess what, next week will be as well...and the week after that! THEN, THEN, I'm taking a whole week off. With no plans!! But until then...

This week starts out with a Veterans Day program at my daughter's school and a visit from a team from corporate with whom I work directly. Then training several new employees, working on setting 2013 goals and whatever else comes up. The week after will be Thanksgiving so it's a short week of work - sounds exciting except that I know I'll be trying to jam five days of work (plus vacation prep) into three days. In addition, we're hosting a Thanksgiving dinner so we'll have to clean the house that week as well.

I'm so ready to done with going to the chiropractor twice a week - at least that would free up a couple hours.

Anyway, I did do some good cooking this week, I just hadn't had time to post it. This past week included chipotle potato salad, chicken enchilada tacos and cranberry-orange roasted chicken.

Chipotle Potato Salad
8 medium red potatoes
1/2 small red onion, finely diced
1/2 bell pepper, finely diced
1 stalk celery, finely diced
2 Tbsp vegenaise (or mayonnaise)
1 Tbsp yellow mustard
1-2 Tbsp adobo sauce, plus 1 chipotle pepper
1 tsp garlic powder
1-2 Tbsp chopped cilantro (optional)
salt to taste

Bring pot of water to boil. Quarter red potatoes. Boil potatoes in water about 15-20 minutes. You'll want potatoes to still be firm so they don't lose their shape.

Combine vegenaise, mustard, 1 Tbsp adobo sauce, pepper and garlic powder in food processor to pureed pepper. Taste dressing mixture. Add additional adobo if desired.

Once potatoes are done, rinse with cool water and place in a large bowl. Toss will onion, bell pepper and celery. Stir in dressing and mix well. For best taste, place in fridge for about 4 hours before serving. This is a great side dish to grilled chicken with black beans on the side.

Chicken Enchilada Tacos
1 lb chicken breasts, thawed
1/2 can mild enchilada sauce
1/2 small onion
1 4-oz can green chiles
corn tortillas
shredded lettuce
shredded cheese, if desired

Place first four ingredients in crockpot. Cook on high about 2-3 hours, until chicken is fully cooked and easily shredded. Remove chicken from crockpot and place in bowl. Shred chicken - you can do this by using two forks or a mixer.

Warm corn tortillas in microwave or oven. Assemble tacos with lettuce, chicken mixture and other ingredients such as cheese, sour cream, avocado, pico de gallo, etc.

Cranberry-Orange Roasted Chicken
1 whole chicken, thawed
1 can cranberry sauce
1 cup orange juice
1/4 tsp salt
1 tsp black pepper
1 Tbsp onion powder

Place chicken in crockpot (remove giblets first). In a small bowl, whisk together cranberry sauce, orange juice, salt, pepper and onion powder. Pour over chicken. Cook on high about 3-4 hours.

I took some of this chicken and made chicken salad for my lunch - mixed it with celery, onion, walnuts, craisins, mustard and vegenaise. I love chicken salad.

Tomorrow I'm doing a test run of the dishes I plan to take to Thanksgiving - a rice pilaf and lemon-garlic green beans. I may even attempt a vegan pumpkin pie. Updates tomorrow.

Crockpot meals for a lazy weekend

It’s been a crockpot weekend. We didn’t have too much planned this weekend – Annyka’s last soccer game some grocery getting and picking up my sister at the airport. My sister, lives in Montana most of the year. She works in Yellowstone National Park, but in the fall she gets about a month and half off and she usually comes home to Indiana for that time. Annyka has been excited to her Aunt Leigh Ann for a while and I like her being home as well even if I don’t see her that much (because she stays at my parents while she's home). 

Annyka and I decided to hit the Aldi and see how much of our groceries we could get there. I stocked up for about a month on our staple canned goods (tomatoes, beans and a few veggies), snacks, cereal, lunches for Annyka and a few other fun items too – like garlic and pepper infused olive oil. In a couple weeks, I’m going to do a vegan challenge, but in the meantime I have a few meatier meals planned so I bought a roast and a turkey breast. 

Yesterday I made “refried” beans (a misnomer since they are friend even once, let alone refried) in the crockpot. And today – Italian beef. I was happy to find a good 3-lb roast and mild peppers at Aldi. This morning I put the roast in the oven and this evening I’ll probably broil some polenta to go with it. 

Italian Beef

2 Tbsp Italian seasonings*

1 Tbsp white sugar*

1 Tbsp salt (add more to taste) *

1 Tbsp onion powder*

1 tsp black pepper*

2 cloves garlic, minced

6 oz mild peppers

6 oz sweet roasted red peppers

1 small onion, diced

Place onions in the slow cooker. Place roast on top of onions, fat side up. Pour peppers, with the liquid over roast. Sprinkle seasonings over the roast. Pour a little water – about a cup, over the roast. Place lid on slow cooker. Cook on low about 6-8 hours. Turn off slow cooker and let roast sit for about 30 minutes before slicing or shredding. Makes great sandwiches on good Italian bread…which I will not be doing! This is a great meal to make for a crowd. 

*The original recipe I used to use called for a packet of dry Italian dressing mix, however, many of them have undesirable ingredients so I had to figure out what combination of seasonings worked instead. You can always use a packet of dressing if you prefer.

The joys of parenting

It was a busy weekend…again, but this time not all of it was fun and games. Saturday was soccer in the morning (Wilson scored on an assist from Annyka!), then we picked up Annyka’s best friend and met some other friends at ZooBoo. Annyka’s friend slept over and we went to the Y to swim on Sunday. And then it happened. My worst nightmare as the mother to a child with thick hair – lice. I found them on Annyka Sunday afternoon so that has hogged up all my time for the past two days. But this is about food, so lets not talk about that anymore. Ick. 

Earlier in the day Sunday (well I actually started on Saturday with the bean soaking), I made some white bean chili – I thought it would be nice to have ready for when we returned from swimming. And it was. The kids made faces at it, but all proceeded to actually eat it so it couldn’t have been that bad!

My soup, this time, actually came from a gluten-free soup mix from Jungle Jim’s but I found a recipe with a few tweaks that I think will yield similar results.

White Bean Chili

1 lb large white beans, soaked overnight in water, drained

6 cups chicken broth

2 cloves garlic, minced

2 medium onions, chopped (divided)

1 Tbsp olive oil

2 4-ounce cans chopped green chilies

1 can chopped artichoke hearts

2 tsp ground cumin

1 1/2 tsp dried oregano

1/4 tsp ground cloves

1/4 tsp cayenne pepper

1 lb ground chicken or turkey

1-2 cups cooked quinoa ( I used leftovers from the night before)

1 Combine beans, chicken broth, garlic and half the onions in a large soup pot and bring to a boil. Reduce heat and simmer until beans are very soft, 3 hours or more. Add additional water (or watered-down broth), if necessary.

2 In a skillet, sauté remaining onions in oil until tender. Add chilies and seasonings and mix thoroughly. Add to bean mixture. Add chicken, quinoa and artichokes and continue to simmer 1 hour. Check seasoning, Add salt or other additional seasoning if necessary.
3 Garnish with cilantro, chopped fresh tomato, salsa, chopped scallions, and/or guacamole. Serve with fresh warmed flour tortillas or tortilla chips.

Yields 8-10 servings

Yesterday while I cleaned and did laundry ALL. DAY. LONG. (I was too tired to work out) I also made polenta in the crockpot. I've been wanting to try this out for a while because I really love polenta and it can be so cheap made from scratch.

It turned out to be pretty dang easy and it tastes great too. We're having some tonight as a "pizza."

Slow Cooker Polenta

2 cups corn meal
8 cups water (or broth)
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp basil
1/2 tsp crushed red pepper
1 tsp salt
1/4 cup chopped sun-dried tomatoes
1-2 tbsp  olive oil or butter

Stir corn meal and water in 6 quart crockpot. Add garlic, basil, pepper and salt. Cook on high, covered stirring occastionally (every 15 minutes or so) for 1 1/2 hours. Add sun-dried tomatoes. Turn heat down to low and cook another 2 hours. The polenta should be nice and thick, but you can still stir it. Add olive oil or butter and stir well.

You can serve the polenta right away if you like it creamy, or you can put it on a cookie sheet or in "tubes" of plastic wrap to store it in the fridge and prepare it later. It will thicken as it cools. I like it best broiled so it's crispy around the edges.

This recipe made enough for one whole cookie sheet and two tubes (at least 3 meals worth). Tonight we'll be topping the cookie sheet polenta with marinara, baby spinach, portobello mushrooms and onion and sticking it under the broiler. I'm really looking forward to it!

It's soup season!

Vegetable soups are a lot like chili - you can make it many different ways.

Tomorrow I'm going to put some in the crockpot for dinner - it will feature ground beef from Green BEAN Delivery, spicy hot V8 and a little red wine. And of course, the typical vegetables: carrots, tomatoes, potatoes, onions, green beans and mushrooms.

Vegetable Beef Soup

1 lb ground beef
1 onion, diced
1 can diced tomatoes
2 potatoes, peeled and diced
3 carrots, peeled and cut into 1/2 coins
1 can cut green beans, drained
2 bay leaves
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 tsp thyme
1 tsp rosemary
1 tsp basil
1/2 cup red wine
3 cups spicy hot V8

Simmer on low in crockpot about 8 hours.

Weekend experiments

Since I cook by trial-and-error, I am bound to make a few mistakes; have a few failures. This weekend I had that happen twice.

I haven't done a lot of vegan baking. I finally mastered a good cookie recipe, but I am just starting to tackle cakes and brownies and that sort of dessert. I got a gluten-free brownie mix several months ago, but just decided to try it this weekend. However, of course, the recipe calls for butter and eggs. sigh. So I had to make it vegan. I decided to be a little creative. For several years I have been  making a chocolate-pumpkin cake that is delicious. You take a box of chocolate cake mix and mix in one 15 oz. can of pumpkin. Add just enough water to get the right cake batter consistency. Then bake according to the cake mix instructions. It's so good and moist and awesome with cream cheese icing (another sigh).

Anyway, I thought I'd try using pumpkin (only half a can) in place of the eggs and butter in the brownie mix. Unfortunately it didn't work. It never set up. The middle of the brownie stayed completely gooey. So I could not take them to the cookout I went to this weekend. I couldn't serve them to anyone else. HOWEVER, they are still very yummy and great with frozen vanilla "ice cream." So it's really only a partial failure. Not something I would serve to anyone else, but something I can definitely still eat. And one of the best things about vegan recipes...nothing in them to cause food poisoning so you can eat them raw if you want to!

My second experiment was a lentil stew in the crockpot. I had some Green BEAN Delivery bulk red lentils rather than green or brown lentils. Red lentils fall apart and become mushier than the other lentils. So the taste of the soup is good, but the consistency is not what I would prefer at all. So maybe it's not a failure, but its not what I like best. I listed the recipe for the crockpot as well the stove top.

Lentil & Smoked Sausage Stew 

1 14.5 oz can diced tomatoes
2 cups lentils, rinsed
2 cups chicken stock
4 cups water
12 oz smoked sausage, sliced into coins
1 onion, diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 bay leaf
salt & pepper to taste

If making in the crockpot, throw all ingredients in the crockpot and let cook on high about 3-4 hours.

If on the stove top, in a large pot, saute onion in about a tsp of oil, once onion is translucent, add garlic and smoked sausage. Once garlic is fragrant and sausage is slightly browned on the edges, add tomatoes and their juice. Let the tomato juice cook down slightly, then add chicken stock, water, bay leaf and lentils. Bring to a boil, reduce the heat, cover and simmer 30 minutes. Add salt to taste and continue to simmer for 15 to 30 minutes, until the lentils have fallen apart and thickened the soup.Add additional seasoning if you prefer.

Plans for the coming week

I don't expect this week to be as busy as the previous few, but honestly the busyness always seems to sneak up on me. I do expect a pretty busy week at work, but hopefully that won't translate into a crazy week at home. One way or the other though, menu planning is a necessity in my life - to save time, money and my health and sanity.

I did go to the grocery store and spend $85 on some of our staples this weekend - shelf-stable almond milk was on sale, so I got 8 of those and canned beans and tomatoes were on sale as well so I got plenty of those. Portobello mushrooms were also on special. Our menu this week is built around the items we already had or these staples I just purchased.

Tomorrow will be mushroom & zucchini fajitas, unless we end up being on the road picking up Annyka at dinnertime. Here's the rest of the week - and I'll include recipes throughout the week when I get the chance.

Monday - mushroom & zucchini fajitas, I took the crockpot "refried" beans out of the freezer today.
Tuesday - Green curry chicken with rice
Wednesday - Tomato & corn millet salad
Thursday - Tamari tilapia with ginger fried rice
Friday  - Lentil pilaf with smoked sausage
Saturday - Three-bean chili
Sunday - Pozole (if necessary, we may have leftovers on Sunday)

Crockpot "Refried" Beans

2 cups Pinto beans
2 cups vegetable or chicken stock
water to cover
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 Tbsp cumin
1 Tbsp chipotle pepper powder
1 tsp salt

Put all ingredients in crockpot and cook on low for 6-8 hours. Once beans are tender, drain off excess liquid and reserve. Use an immersion blender, food processor or hand masher to mash beans. Add reserved liquid to get desired consistency. Serve immediately, or freeze for later use.

Planning for a rainy weekend

A rainy weekend that wasn't nearly as rainy as expected. The rain that was expected to start on Friday didn't come until today, so my rainy day meal was as seasonal as I expected.

This meal was another that used up various items that might have otherwise gone to waste because I love buying food and don't always get around to using it. I would rather go food shopping than any other type of shopping.

So Friday, I had looked up recipes that used raisins and found one for Moroccan Chickpea Stew. It also used chickpeas (obviously), kale (had it), potato(had it), tomato juice (had it), potato (had it), diced tomatoes (had it), cilantro (had it) and garam masala (have tons of it). Really there was nothing in the recipe I didn't already have. Plus I also added carrots and some coconut milk. To increase the ease of the recipe, I put it in the crockpot.

Moroccan Chickpea Stew

1 tsp olive oil
2 cloves garlic, minced

1 small onion, diced
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp ground coriander
1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp garam masala
1/2 tsp curry powder
1 large potato, peeled & diced
1 (14.5 oz) can diced tomatoes, with juice
1 cup tomato or V8 juice
1  cup coconut milk
1 cup golden raisins
1 can chickpeas, drained and rinsed
1 bunch kale, ribs removed, chopped
1/2 cup chopped cilantro

In a large skillet, heat oil. Add onion and saute until onions are translucent. Stir in cumin, coriander, cayenne, garam masala, curry powder and garlic. Cook together until fragrant.

In large crockpot, mix together, potato, tomatoes, raisins, chickpeas, kale, onions, tomato juice and coconut milk (all ingredients except cilantro). Cook in crockpot on high about 4-5 hours.

Serve over quinoa or couscous.

This would be a great dinner on a cold night. It wasn't a cold night Friday, but it was still good!