Ch-ch-ch-changes....

I am going on vacation. I don't know how much time I will have on the road for cooking and blogging. I know that from here on out I will be clearing out my fridge, so there will not be much in the way of new and exciting recipes. I am more than a little bummed that I will not get to share some of my summertime recipes with you...spring rolls, vegetarian sushi, pasta salad....sigh. I will also miss hearing from all of you on a regular basis. There is something so nifty about being connected by food blog, eating a meal in Georgia, that your friend in Oregon prepared last week. All discovering a new seasonal veg at the same time, and each coming up with our own variation on it. It's pretty dang cool.

All that to say, don't expect too much for the next few months in the way of recipes. I may get in the time to do some "eating healthy on the road" sort of stuff. My Father has kindly suggested that I post old family recipes in the interim......Great grandma Juanita's famous menudo anyone? I won't tell you what I kindly suggested back to him. :)

So sorry about the break from the norm. I promise to get back to posting recipes in the fall, as long as you all promise to come back to read them. :)

Coconut Ginger Rice with Crispy Fried Shallots

My Husband wanted me to make this for a potluck that his work is having....I wanted to make pasta salad. We have a jar of mayo in the fridge (no clue why, I just work here), and I'd like to get rid of it because little man is allergic. My thought is...people like mayonnaise. If I make a pasta salad, people will eat it, the mayonnaise will be gone, and all will be right with the world once more.

But my husband looked at me with those eyes that said, " I am really excited about this* dish." So I gave in. I won't be there to see the polite, yet inquisitive faces when he sets down a large bowl of rice and lentils, so I don't have to know how it is received. I will be at home chowing down on some leftovers and watching "13 going on 30" in peace.

This decision however posed another question....do I make it to suit my own taste? Should I tone down the spices for a more mellow flavor that would be pleasing to the masses? Or do I kick it up a notch and wait for the leftovers to come back to me. I decided to compromise at about halfway. Feel free to adjust it to suit your tastes.

I really enjoy this recipe, and so do the kiddos. The coconut milk is full of fat and calories that are super good for their little growing bodies. I usually take a smaller portion for myself, and load up with a big side of steamed veggies. It's all about moderation, don't ya know.

Also important to note, the crispy fried shallots make an excellent topper on steamed veggies! It's the crunch of a breadcrumb, the taste of an onion ring, all without the gluten!


What you need

1 can coconut milk
2 tbs plus one tsp minced ginger from a jar
6 cloves garlic peeled and pressed
2 tbs sugar
cayenne to taste
2 dashes nutmeg
1/4 tsp salt
3 rice cooker cups rice
1 rice cooker cup lentils (rinsed well, drained, and sorted as always)
broth
more salt
rice cooker

oil
shallots
more salt

Whisk together the first seven ingredients in a bowl.

Add the rice and lentils to your rice cooker, and pour the coconut mixture over the top. Add broth up to the liquid line required for four cups of rice.

Press down the lever and walk away.

Meanwhile in the frying pan.....

Heat your oil over medium heat and thinly slice your shallots.

Carefully add the shallots to your hot oil. Sprinkle with a pinch of salt.

Cook until crispy, flipping once. For me it took about 3 minutes on each side, but it may take longer depending on how your stove cooks...how thin you slice...etc.

Remove shallots with a slotted spoon and set on a paper towel (preferably out of reach of the hubster, trust me it makes a difference) taste, and add more salt if desired

At some point your rice cooker will tell you it is done. At this point you should walk over and find out if it's a lying sissy la la or not. You will be able to tell by...
1.) the liquid will be gone
2.) the taste test, it should be the right texture............................................

....

Mine was not done...grrr....slam down the cook button and show that rice cooker who's boss. If it makes you feel better you can mutter under your breath, "I'll tell you when you're done". When your rice cooker is really and truly done, dump the contents into your serving bowl, season with salt to taste, fluff, and sprinkle shallots over the top as garnish.



*I was going to say, "look at me getting all fancy here with the italics and stuff. Don't worry it took me about twenty minutes to figure out how to do that, and switch it back. I'm not getting all high tech on you". Then I hit publish and totally forgot about my little asterisk friend for about 24 hours...oops....ya high tech editing is at the bottom of my list of stuff to improve on. How bout I focus on finishing my blog once and a while.

What's in your freezer?

I think that about 80% * of healthy eating is planning for healthy eating. And part of that planning is knowing what to do when your plans fall through. I've mentioned before that freezer meals have saved the day for me on a number of occasions. I would love to amp up the variety in my freezer, and that is where you come into the picture. Currently I have flautas, chili, rhubarb (thanks for the help Toni), muffins, whole wheat sourdough biscuits, black bean burgers, beans, and an assortment of frozen veggies.

What is in your freezer? What is your favorite meal to freeze?

P.S. I promise to get a recipe up for my black bean burgers soon. I just threw away the bag that the beans came in, so I have to go to the store and figure out what size it was....what can I say, I'm not always super organized. :)

*Also interesting to note, about 37.5% of statistics are made up.

Marinated Portobello Mushrooms with Sun Dried Tomato Sauce

For as fancy as this sounds, the thought process that led me to it was rather simple. First I looked in my fridge to see what we had on hand, then I checked to see which measuring cups were clean. I could lie to you and say that I was trying to achieve a balance between the saltiness of the tomatoes and the sweet cherry notes of the pinot noir....but no, it was more like "Hey look Portobello mushrooms, I bet I have something in my fridge that will make those taste good....and look here, I have a tbs measure that isn't dirty, let's use that.

For the Marinade
2 tbs balsamic vinegar
4 tbs red wine
2 tbs olive oil
1 tbs prepared mustard
1 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 cloves peeled and pressed garlic

Clean and degill* four mushrooms and place them in a baking dish. Whisk together the marinade ingredients and pour over the mushrooms. Cover and refrigerate for at least two hours turning once. I left mine in all day, yum!

For the sauce

1 package (3.5 oz) sun dried tomatoes
2 tbs olive oil
2 tbs red wine
2 cloves peeled garlic
1 15oz can of tomato sauce

Put the garlic, oil, wine, and tomatoes in your food processor. Process until smoothish and start adding sauce. Once all the ingredients are in there, and you are certain you don't have any large chunks of garlic left you are done.

Now let us put it all together.....

Grill the mushrooms until desired doneness.

Heat the sauce in a saucepan over medium low heat until cooked through. Stir occasionally.

Pour sauce over mushrooms and serve.

This was delish! I added smoked Gouda to the hubsters portion (pictured). I thought the sauce was a tad salty, hubster disagreed....but he likes food super salty. I would suggest using no salt added tomato sauce, and adding more salt as you see fit.




*I don't know if degill is a word, the wavy red lines of doom are indicating to me that no...it is in fact not. But what I mean by degill is take your paring knife and carefully scrape all of those black gilly type things out of the inside of the mushroom.

Smokey Chipotle Black Bean Burger

This is a OAMC recipe. I made these sort of assembly line style and it took a good bit of time, but it was worth it for us because now i have a ton of veggie burgers in my freezer that make quick and filling dinners. It only took a little bit of effort for each part of the process, but it can look a bit daunting when you put it all together.

I soaked the beans the night before, then first thing in the morning I drained and rinsed them. Then I set them to boil while I chopped up my onions, garlic, and measured out my spices in a bowl. I added the onion and bay leaf, and then I made breakfast for the kids. Thirty minutes later, when the timer went off I just dumped the garlic and bowl of spices in. Then I got the kids dressed and thirty minutes later when the timer went off again I tasted them, removed the bay leaves, and turned off the heat. I let the beans cool a bit then I pureed them up with the rest of the ingredients to make my veggie burger "dough". That went into the fridge until I was ready to turn it into patties.

You could probably cut this recipe in half and try it out before you commit to a freezer full of bean burgers.

For the beans
One pound beans rinsed sorted and soaked overnight...then rinsed again.
2 onions diced
2 bay leaves
5 cloves of garlic, peeled and diced
1/4 tsp salt
2 tbs chili powder
1 tbs ground cumin

In a large pot combine the beans, onion and salt. Add water just to cover, and toss in the bay leaves.

Bring to a boil over medium high heat. Boil for thirty minutes and add the spices and garlic. Set the timer for 15 minutes and check beans. Mine took about an hour total to cook.

Remove bay leaves. Let beans cool.

If there is excessive liquid skim it off...a tiny bit of liquid is ok. You don't want it pooling, or for the beans to be submerged. The more liquid you have the more breadcrumbs you will need though.


Now....to turn these babies into burgers....

The beans....hu-duh
1/2-2 chipotle chilis in adobo....start with 1/2 and you can always add more. And remember what I always say, you can never have too much spice....unless it's in your eyes, then pretty much any amount is too much.
2 baked potatoes skins removed
1/4 cup tomato sauce
Bread crumbs, the amount you need will vary depending on how much cooking liquid you had, how big your baked potatoes were...etc. I believe I may have used about 3 cups. What you are looking for is the texture of cookie dough so stop when you get there...
Salt to taste.
Liquid smoke to taste...trust me, this stuff is the bomb diggity! Get some! Use it, love it, thank me later...don't be discouraged from buying it just because I still use early nineties catch phrases like "the bomb diggity".



Process 3/4 of the beans, the potatoes, tomato sauce, and the chipotle in your food processor until smooth. Pour into a large bowl.

Stir in the rest of the beans, and the breadcrumbs until your mixture is very thick and holds it's shape well. Add salt, pepper and liquid smoke to taste, cover and refrigerate.

When you are ready to grill, just shape the dough into patties and grill, bake or fry them up. I served them on homemade bread with mozzarella and avocado! Yum! I froze the leftover burgers. They did well reheated.



More tips on veggie burger making.

Veggie Burger Tips

There are so many advantages to making your own veggie burgers, you control the sodium, flavorings, ingredients, and texture. Also, if you happen to be avoiding soy, making your own is the way to go!
I have had some pretty epic fails in cooking. Mostly in the area of baking, but veggie burgers have proven to be a formidable opponent. I have learned a few things through my failures and I would like to share them with you.

First of all, all of my great successes have involved a food processor. They enable me to puree the beans to actually act as a binder in my burgers. If you don't have a food processor you should go get one, or borrow one.


The dough or batter (or whatever) should have a dense, thick consistency, like cookie dough....mmmmm cookies...,dagnabbit now I want a cookie.
Be right back.......

Thirdly, chill your dough! I find it's best to make veggie burgers in big batches. I do it on a scheduled day that I don't have much else going on. I make the dough the night before and leave it in the fridge. It gives the flavors a chance to blend, and I have an easier time shaping the patties.

The dough should be easy to shape into patties. If it is falling apart in your hand it will fall apart on the grill.

After taking this picture I allowed myself a few minutes to snicker about how it looks like I'm holding a doodie. I will allow you the same....have I mentioned how mature I am? Are we all done then? Good.

Last but not least, you want your grill, or frying pan hot when you put the patties on.

I hope this helps some. Pictured in these photos are some smokey chipotle black bean burgers, I will hopefully be getting around to putting a recipe up sometime later this week. It's a OAMC recipe so if you are wary of veggie burgers I would suggest trying it (or another recipe) in small batches. See what you and your family like. Then if you have a couple of hours that you can set aside, make the whole recipe to keep in the freezer for quick meals.

Grilled Asparagus Sandwich...

This is a grilled asparagus sandwich with garlic-ginger butter mozzarella and balsamic vinegar....but really that is much too long of a title for a blog, so "grilled asparagus sandwich" it is! This is my consolation for my husband never being home. He works very long hours, on a good day (that he is working) I might see him for three hours. On a bad day I "see" him for about twenty minutes, which is usually long enough for him to do crowd control so that I can take a shower. Some days, though we live together, I don't even see him at all. And today...on his day off...he is working at the local food bank. Have I mentioned my husband is Ahhhmazing? I try not to complain, because really it could be worse. He is here, living with me, and about once or twice a year we go on a daaa, deeeeeee, diiiiii....what's that word again...oh yes a "date".

Also it's hard to feel bitter and angry when your husband is defending our freedom while at work, and feeding the hungry in his time off. In an effort to dwell on the positive I have compiled a small list of things that are good about his absences. One would be how grateful we are after a long week apart, one would be watching chick flicks and other such movies that would normally provoke groans, sighs, and him eventually changing the netflix password....again.
Lastly, this sandwich. My husband doesn't like asparagus....


....or so I thought...
...until I wrote this blog...and read it to him.
And he said, "No honey, I like asparagus"...
So I must have been confused, which I must confess isn't too surprising.

For the sake of believing that this sandwich is another tally on the "things that I enjoy while the hubster is away" list, I am going to pretend he never said that. You can too...
that's really not a suggestion.

I grilled the asparagus, brushed it with olive oil, and sprinkled it with salt about half way through.
I Spread some garlic-ginger butter on ciabatta bread, added slices of mozzarella cheese. Once the asparagus was fully cooked I added it to the sandwich...*...drizzled balsamic vinegar over the whole thing, and took a really bad picture with my cell phone.
It was delicious!



* insert: arranged the bread so you can't tell that I burned the heck out of it