I was invited to the lovely home of an even lovlier family, and tasked with bringing a dish. The hostess thoughtfully created an event on FB to help guests coordinate the sides and such. In my laziness, I waited until late to weigh in with what I wanted to bring, so there were only a couple of things left. I opted for the rice dish and deviled eggs. I wasn't worried about the deviled eggs, but I did know I wanted to do something a little different. Not going to lie, the rice dish intimidated me a bit. I grew up eating rice regularly, and I love it in pilaf, risotto, stir-fried and in pudding, but it's not something I really set out to make on any sort of regular basis as an adult. Each time I think of making something with rice, the first thought that pops in my head is, "ain't nobody got time for that". Given that I had a 10 pound bag of dried rice sitting in my pantry itching to be used, I figured I may as well get over myself and dive in. I knew I wanted something colorful and chocked full of veggies (I mean, how else would I get the color?).
At any rate, I went to the store and picked up any veggie that looked "fun". To my utter delight, as I was getting some pine nuts in the bulk bin section, and saw organic wild rice on CLEARANCE!!!! I probably shouldn't have been so excited, but dude, CLEARANCE!!! In my head, I was thinking I would be feeding millions, so I left the store with enough stuff to last the rest of the year. I was also thinking there would be no leftovers, so I'd planned on making a lamb based dirty rice for the week (I mean, I did have a freakin' 10lb. bag of rice, after all). At any rate, below you will find my recipes, scaled down a bit from the originals (that I am STILL eating). I had plenty of leftovers, so I didn't need to make a seperate dish for the week, I just ended up adding stuff to the leftover rice (that did not originally contain meat, btw).
Festive Bacon Deviled Eggs
Yield 12 servings (2 pieces per serving)
1 dozen eggs
1/2 cup mayo
1 t dried parsley
1/3 cup bacon pieces
1/3 cup chopped grape tomatoes, seeded
pinch or two of salt and pepper
Extra tomato, bacon and fresh parsley for garnish (optional)
Hard boil the eggs. Before peeling, make several cracks in the shell and let them sit in cold water for about 10 minutes. This will help stop the cooking and the water will seep between the shell and the egg white to make shell removeal eaiser.
Once the shells have been removed, halve each and put the cooked yolks in a small mixing bowl. Add the other ingredients, and mix until creamy. Taste for salt and pepper.
If you are wanting to make a more impressive presentation, place the yolk filling in a pastry bag and pipe it into the cooked whites. Garnish with extra chopped tomato and bacon. Just before serving, rain parsley over the eggs.
Notes: If you're a mustard fan like myself, you can add 1 1/2 t mustard to the filling to give it some pep. Extra yumminess!
Easter Rice
Serves 10 (1 cup servings)-great way to sneak veggies in kiddos
2 cups dry rice
1 cup wild rice
1 lb. ground lamb
Olive oil
1 leek, halved and sliced
4 shallots, minced
1/3 cup shittake mushrooms, chopped
1/3 cup baby bella mushrooms, chopped
1/2 bunch of kale, finely chopped
1 1/12 cups carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 rib of celery, minced
2 t dried mint
1/4 cup pine nuts
1/2 cup parmesan cheese, grated
6 cups of chicken stock
salt and pepper to taste
In a large pot, add about 4 T olive oil to a pan. Turn the heat onto med-high, and add rices and shallots.
Saute until rice browns lightly.
Add ground lamb, and mint. Brown lamb (you should be able to smell the mint).
Start adding veggies with a couple of pinches of salt, stirring after each addtion until they are covered in oil (add 2-3 T of oil if the mixture seems dry).
In a small, dry pan, toast pine nuts until you can smell them (be careful that they do not burn!). Add the nuts to the pan with all the rice and meat.
The veggies should be have had time to sweat a bit, so go ahead and at the chicken stock at this point. Let everything boil for about 7 minutes, then turn the heat down to low and simmer until very little liquid remains (probably 15 minutes).
Turn off the heat, and remove from the burner. Allow the rice to sit until all liquid has been taken up by the rice. Nothing should be sticking to the bottom of the pot.
Fluff the rice, mix in the parmesan cheese, and serve!
Note: You can brighten the whole dish by squeezing half a lemon's worth of juice on just before serving. Add creaminess by mixing in marscapone or goat cheese.
Showing posts with label carrots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carrots. Show all posts
Wednesday, April 23, 2014
Monday, January 20, 2014
Sweet potato topped shepherd's pie
Since my wreck, I have craved nothing but comfort foods. Heavy foods that pay no mind to my waistline. Mostly, I've been indulging in take-out and super processed foods. While the desire for comfort food has not left, I decided to go for something a bit more nutritious. REAL FOOD! I had some beef stir fry meat (pretty much any minced beef will do...even ground beef) that I chopped up. The idea with all of this is to keep everything roughly the same size. At any rate this is real, unprocessed, comfort food. With veggies and the super food, sweet potatoes, this dish is high in Vitamin A and packs a taste punch!
Sweet potato topped Shepherd's Pie
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 lb. beef stew meat, minced (skirt steak or chuck roast also works, as does ground sirloin)
3 larch carrots, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 bottle stout (Guiness is awesome in this)
1 cube beef boullion
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
5-6 T. oil (or, to be honest, bacon grease is fabulous here), divided
1/4 cup milk (or half and half)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the sweet potatoes out on a cookie sheet. Coat with 3 T oil. Roast 15 minutes or until cooked through.
2. Heat 2 T. oil in a large pan. Add the veggies, and cook for 5-7 minutes on med-high heat. Add a pinch of salt to help them sweat a bit. Keep everything moving in the pan. If things start to stick or if you notice the pan browning, turn down the heat a bit.
3. Dump the cooked veggies into a baking dish, leaving as much of the oil in the pan as possible. If the pan is dry, add 1 T of oil. Toss in the beef and brown well.
4. Turn the heat up slightly and deglaze the pan with half the stout (about 6 oz). If you'd rather not use the stout, use coffee. They both add tons of flavor, don't skimp out with just using water!
5. Crumble the beef boullion cube into the mixture and stir well. Add the veggies back to the pan and stir until everything is coated. Simmer 5 minutes (med-low heat).
6. Put the meat mixture back in the baking dish. Mash the sweet potatoes with the milk. Cover the meat mixture with the mashed potatoes and you're done! Tear it up!
Sweet potato topped Shepherd's Pie
Serves 4-6
Ingredients:
1 lb. beef stew meat, minced (skirt steak or chuck roast also works, as does ground sirloin)
3 larch carrots, chopped
1 small onion, diced
1 cup frozen peas
1 bottle stout (Guiness is awesome in this)
1 cube beef boullion
salt and pepper to taste
2-3 medium sweet potatoes, peeled and cut into large chunks
5-6 T. oil (or, to be honest, bacon grease is fabulous here), divided
1/4 cup milk (or half and half)
Directions:
1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spread the sweet potatoes out on a cookie sheet. Coat with 3 T oil. Roast 15 minutes or until cooked through.
2. Heat 2 T. oil in a large pan. Add the veggies, and cook for 5-7 minutes on med-high heat. Add a pinch of salt to help them sweat a bit. Keep everything moving in the pan. If things start to stick or if you notice the pan browning, turn down the heat a bit.
3. Dump the cooked veggies into a baking dish, leaving as much of the oil in the pan as possible. If the pan is dry, add 1 T of oil. Toss in the beef and brown well.
4. Turn the heat up slightly and deglaze the pan with half the stout (about 6 oz). If you'd rather not use the stout, use coffee. They both add tons of flavor, don't skimp out with just using water!
5. Crumble the beef boullion cube into the mixture and stir well. Add the veggies back to the pan and stir until everything is coated. Simmer 5 minutes (med-low heat).
6. Put the meat mixture back in the baking dish. Mash the sweet potatoes with the milk. Cover the meat mixture with the mashed potatoes and you're done! Tear it up!
Sunday, July 14, 2013
Stir up some veggie eaters!
Growing up, I never had an issue eating vegetables. I guess it's because there were always plenty of fresh, locally grown vegetables available, and they tasted amazing. Our next door neighbor always grew tomatoes, collard greens, spinach, and sometimes peas (usually purple hull). Every once in a while, he would drop off bags and/or pillow cases full of each because he had too much. Sometimes, during the summer, my mother and I would walk to his house and he would let us pick it ourselves. My paternal grandparents had peach, plum and fig trees, as well as chickens, and squash. Occasionally, they grew strawberries or other veggies. Every summer, I would be in the kitchen with my step-grandmother, making jams, jellies and preserves. Boy, I wish I'd paid more attention...it would certainly make my canning go a lot smoother! Several other people we knew had extremely prolific and large home gardens, so we would get pounds and pounds of fresh produce straight from the source. It was a fabulous way for a young foodie to grow up, let me tell ya!
At any rate, I love vegetables, and summer makes me love eating them even more. Not every child falls in love with the oh-so-good-for-you fruits of the earth, so parents now-a-days are having to find all kinds of tricks to get their child to eat their veggies. I have found that stir-fry is a great way to get children to eat their veggies. For some reason, when they are hidden in plain sight, children are more interested in eating them. Granted, you can go the route of hiding vegetables by juicing and pureeing them and adding them to "normal" recipes, but understand this will not really develop a healthy love or enjoyment of vegetables...just the foods they are hidden in. I believe ultimately, you want a child to see a vegetable, know what it is and still chose to consume it. It makes life less stressful for everyone involved.
Thursday, I went about planning my meals for the weekend, and decided a stir-fry was in order. After the curried chicken, I was in the mood for more international cuisine. I was craving the tender-crisp texture of veggies with a hint of magic, which is what I feel like I get with stir-fry. Going low carb and G2F (gluten/grain free) meant eliminating soy sauce (it contains wheat) and limiting sugar exposure, since so many American-style stir-fry sauces contain tons of sugar. What I came up with, is a very light, summery Lemon Ginger stir-fry in which the main stars are the veggies. It has chicken, which is totally optional, so this would be quick and easy meatless meal, if you were so inclined. I paired it with Sauteed Bok Choy which also picked up some of the ginger notes and added a little more spice of it's own. You could serve this with fake rice, or not...totally up to you. I don't think its necessary. Okay, I shall keep you in suspence no longer, on to the recipes!
Lemon Ginger (7-veggie) Stir-Fry
1/2 cup sliced carrots (try to use organic)
1 red bell pepper sliced in semi circles
2 ribs of celery sliced on the bias
1/2 of medium sized red onion, sliced in semi circles
1-2 large portabella mushrooms, gills removed, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup green beans or sugar snap peas cut in 1-inch sections
1 broccoli crown cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 lb chicken breast or tenders, thinly sliced into 2-inch pieces, patted dry
3 large cloves of garlic sliced/crushed
1/2 t red pepper flakes
Olive oil
1 T minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup lemon juice
1-2 t agave nectar or honey* optional
Salt
Directions:
1. Pour enough oil to coat the bottom of a large (10 or 12 inch) skillet by a good 1/8th of an inch. Turn heat onto medium, close to med-high. Add garlic and pepper flakes.
2. As the oil heats, stir the glaric around to make sure it doesn't burn. You are using to to flavor the oil.
3. When the garlic is light brown (NOT BURNED), remove it quickly from the oil.
4. Turn the heat to med-high. Add the chicken, stiring quickly to coat it in oil. Cook for 2 minutes. (this is when thinly slicing/shaving it is a bit better than cutting it into 1-in cubes as many recipes ask, you get more caramelization and flavor)
5. Add broccoli, mushrooms, celery and onions and a couple of pinches of salt. Cook 1-2 minutes, stirring a few times.
6. Add all other veggies with another couple of pinches of salt. At this point you may want to make sure there is still enough oil to coat everything. It not, add a good 1/4 cup to the pan. This is what will help make the light sauce. Toss everything to coat well. Cook 1-2 minutes.
7. Add ginger and continue cooking until you smell it (if your heat is high enough, this should take about a minute). Pour in lemon juice and cook until everything is coated. Remove from the heat and serve!
NOTES: This dish is lightly sauced, so it should not be swimming in juices. If there is a lot of juice (adding the salt, makes the veggies release their natural juices), keep cooking and stirring until some of the liquid has evaporated. Lastly, if you want to make this a bit more appetizing to children, or if you'd enjoy a slightly sweeter flavor, add the agave nectar or honey. Add a very small amount to control sugar exposure. Remember, we're not going for a sticky, gooey stir-fry. We are looking for everything to have a nice coating, and that's it.
Sauteed Bok Choy
1 Head of Bok Choy, sliced (wash it well)
1-2 t minced fresh ginger (depending on how spicey you like it)
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/3 cup olive oil
1 t butter
salt
Directions
Heat pan to med-high.
Add oil, butter, ginger and nutmeg. heat until you smell them (shouldn't take more than a few seconds). Stir well.
Add bok choy and a coule of pinches of salt. Stir, cooking about 5 minutes. You are looking for the stalks to have a tender-crisp texture and the leaves will be wilted. Enjoy!
At any rate, I love vegetables, and summer makes me love eating them even more. Not every child falls in love with the oh-so-good-for-you fruits of the earth, so parents now-a-days are having to find all kinds of tricks to get their child to eat their veggies. I have found that stir-fry is a great way to get children to eat their veggies. For some reason, when they are hidden in plain sight, children are more interested in eating them. Granted, you can go the route of hiding vegetables by juicing and pureeing them and adding them to "normal" recipes, but understand this will not really develop a healthy love or enjoyment of vegetables...just the foods they are hidden in. I believe ultimately, you want a child to see a vegetable, know what it is and still chose to consume it. It makes life less stressful for everyone involved.
Thursday, I went about planning my meals for the weekend, and decided a stir-fry was in order. After the curried chicken, I was in the mood for more international cuisine. I was craving the tender-crisp texture of veggies with a hint of magic, which is what I feel like I get with stir-fry. Going low carb and G2F (gluten/grain free) meant eliminating soy sauce (it contains wheat) and limiting sugar exposure, since so many American-style stir-fry sauces contain tons of sugar. What I came up with, is a very light, summery Lemon Ginger stir-fry in which the main stars are the veggies. It has chicken, which is totally optional, so this would be quick and easy meatless meal, if you were so inclined. I paired it with Sauteed Bok Choy which also picked up some of the ginger notes and added a little more spice of it's own. You could serve this with fake rice, or not...totally up to you. I don't think its necessary. Okay, I shall keep you in suspence no longer, on to the recipes!
Lemon Ginger (7-veggie) Stir-Fry
1/2 cup sliced carrots (try to use organic)
1 red bell pepper sliced in semi circles
2 ribs of celery sliced on the bias
1/2 of medium sized red onion, sliced in semi circles
1-2 large portabella mushrooms, gills removed, sliced 1/4 inch thick
1 cup green beans or sugar snap peas cut in 1-inch sections
1 broccoli crown cut into bite sized pieces
1/2 lb chicken breast or tenders, thinly sliced into 2-inch pieces, patted dry
3 large cloves of garlic sliced/crushed
1/2 t red pepper flakes
Olive oil
1 T minced fresh ginger
1/2 cup lemon juice
1-2 t agave nectar or honey* optional
Salt
Directions:
1. Pour enough oil to coat the bottom of a large (10 or 12 inch) skillet by a good 1/8th of an inch. Turn heat onto medium, close to med-high. Add garlic and pepper flakes.
2. As the oil heats, stir the glaric around to make sure it doesn't burn. You are using to to flavor the oil.
3. When the garlic is light brown (NOT BURNED), remove it quickly from the oil.
4. Turn the heat to med-high. Add the chicken, stiring quickly to coat it in oil. Cook for 2 minutes. (this is when thinly slicing/shaving it is a bit better than cutting it into 1-in cubes as many recipes ask, you get more caramelization and flavor)
5. Add broccoli, mushrooms, celery and onions and a couple of pinches of salt. Cook 1-2 minutes, stirring a few times.
6. Add all other veggies with another couple of pinches of salt. At this point you may want to make sure there is still enough oil to coat everything. It not, add a good 1/4 cup to the pan. This is what will help make the light sauce. Toss everything to coat well. Cook 1-2 minutes.
7. Add ginger and continue cooking until you smell it (if your heat is high enough, this should take about a minute). Pour in lemon juice and cook until everything is coated. Remove from the heat and serve!
NOTES: This dish is lightly sauced, so it should not be swimming in juices. If there is a lot of juice (adding the salt, makes the veggies release their natural juices), keep cooking and stirring until some of the liquid has evaporated. Lastly, if you want to make this a bit more appetizing to children, or if you'd enjoy a slightly sweeter flavor, add the agave nectar or honey. Add a very small amount to control sugar exposure. Remember, we're not going for a sticky, gooey stir-fry. We are looking for everything to have a nice coating, and that's it.
Sauteed Bok Choy
1 Head of Bok Choy, sliced (wash it well)
1-2 t minced fresh ginger (depending on how spicey you like it)
1/4 t ground nutmeg
1/3 cup olive oil
1 t butter
salt
Directions
Heat pan to med-high.
Add oil, butter, ginger and nutmeg. heat until you smell them (shouldn't take more than a few seconds). Stir well.
Add bok choy and a coule of pinches of salt. Stir, cooking about 5 minutes. You are looking for the stalks to have a tender-crisp texture and the leaves will be wilted. Enjoy!
Friday, July 12, 2013
Portion distortion in a good way
We all know as Americans, we struggle with how much is on our plate as well as what is on our plate. The average American plate tends to be dominated by a meat-based entree, and smaller portions of side dishes. The side dishes are more often than no, starchy in nature and often slathered with butter. Changing the way I eat, has certainly changed the way my plate looks. Instead of being dominated by a huge slab of meat (no matter how healthfully prepared), it is now composed mainly of veggies with a small portion of protein. This is how our plates are supposed to look. Full of nutrients, color and visual appeal. We tend to get into a rut by making everything the same size and monchromatically themed (i.e. everything on the plate is white or brown), but what I like about this meal are the different colors and shapes. Having the veggies piled atop one another and them being different sizes makes them far more interesting. This would appeal to smaller children, because they could have fun trying to find all the carrots and sorting everything while consuming all the vitamins and minerals they to live healthy, happy lives.
Sunday pot roast (3 oz), steamed green beans and steamed baby carrots
Sunday pot roast (3 oz), steamed green beans and steamed baby carrots
Saturday, May 28, 2011
Sunday eats
I don't know about you, but when I was growing up, Sundays were feasting days. There was usually chicken or pot roast and plenty of sides to please even the pickiest crowd. My mother made Sunday cooking look effortless. Somehow all of this amazing food appeared on the table with little to no effort. I now know that I was just not paying enough attention. Sunday meals take tons of planning, shopping and preparation. Last Sunday, my plans to go to church were thwarted by a flat tire, so I stayed home and treated my parents to a good ol' fashioned Sunday feast.
The menu:
Beef roast braised in red wine
Citrusy green beans topped with crunchy fried onion rings
Roasted garlic-herb potatoes
Since I hadn't been planning on making roast, I had to take one out of the freezer and toss it in the microwave to get it defrosting. While the microwave worked it's magic, I got a pan screaming hot and roughly chopped an onion and the rest of the garlic bulb left from the pizza. I took the meat out of the microwave, and cut it into about 5 large pieces. My pan was starting to smoke, so I quickly dredged the meat with flour and tossed them into the hot oil. I just wanted to get some color (and thus more flavor) on all sides of the meat. After everything was browned, I added about a cup of baby carrots, the onion and garlic. I took the briefest moment to listen to everything sizzle (I just love that sound!) before deglazing the pan with 3 cups of warm water (unfortunately I had no beef stock) and about that much red wine. I just wanted to cover the meat with liquid. A few seasonings (S/P, and about 2 Tbs of Mrs. Dash Southwest chipotle seasoning) went in, then I covered the dutch oven and put it in the 400 degree oven for 3 hours. When I checked on it, everything was bubbling nicely, so I lowered the temp to 375 for another hour.
During that last hour of cooking, I heated a pot of oil to 350, and very thinly sliced an onion. I did the typical egg dip/flour dredge routine then plunged the little darlings into the hot oil for a quick fry. I diced a few potatoes and tossed them with melted butter and garlic salt, then they went on a sheet pan and into the oven. Two cans of green beans, 1 Tbs of orange zest and the juice of the orange + a little s/p went into a casserole dish and then into the oven. I drained the fried onions on paper toweling, pulled out the roast and placed it in a bowl so that I could make a pan sauce with the cooking juices. Thanks to the flour from the original searing of the meat, the sauce thicken really well. The green beans came out of the oven first...they just needed to be warmed through. The potatoes were next once they started to get nice and brown. The fried onions were laid to rest atop the green beans. The gravy was poured on top of the meat, and the potatoes were dumped onto a serving platter.
Things moved very quickly at the end, but thanks to good planning, the timing was great...everything was ready at the same time! Woohoo! Sorry there are no pics of the potatoes, I didn't think they were that interesting looking...I mean, we all know what cut up potatoes look like.
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