roasted veggies

Tonight I was looking for something quick, easy, and healthy to make myself for dinner. I had some veggies laying around from a soup I never made, so I thought I would roast them. It doesn't really take a recipe to make them, but I like the combination of these veggies and spices (especially the fresh rosemary from my tree!) Anyway, Caden picked out all of the onions and potatoes from my plate and ate them... and requested it again tomorrow night!

Ingredients

4 small red potatoes
1 large zucchini
2 small yellow onions
1 garlic bulb
1 red bell pepper
Olive oil
Rosemary, thyme, oregano, salt, pepper

Directions

Preheat the oven to 420 degrees. Cut the potatoes into 4 pieces and boil them until slightly tender (about 5 minutes). Cut up the rest of the vegetables (I cut the potatoes into smaller pieces too), toss with olive oil and spices. Roast in the oven until the potatoes are tender and turning slightly brown (about 15 minutes).

soup!

I've been in the mood for soup since the weather started getting colder & after having some awesome pumpkin soup at Aunt Marie's house, I thought I would try it out at home. I found a recipe online that sounded good & changed it a bit for my taste. It was definitely delicious & super easy.

Ingredients

1 (15 -ounce) can of canned, solid-packed pumpkin filling
2 (14 ½ -ounce) cans of fat free, chicken broth
2 cloves minced garlic
½ cup of chopped onions
½ cup skim milk
1 tsp hot sauce
Pinch cayenne
Pepper and Salt to taste
Light sour cream

Directions

In a non-stick pot, sauté the onions over medium heat until tender (about 6 minutes). Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Add in the pumpkin, and then gradually add the chicken broth and milk. Season with hot sauce, cayenne, salt and pepper. Cook the soup until heated all the way through. Serve soup over a dollop of sour cream.



Tonight I made the pumpkin soup with steak tenderloin (for the boys) and parmesan orzo. Zach called the orzo a more sophisticated mac & cheese. Caden (who is normally not a cheese or pasta lover) ate every bit on his plate. The picture doesn't really do it justice. We were too eager to eat it to manage a decent picture!

Ingredients

Olive oil
1/2 onion finely chopped
2 cloves minced garlic
1 and 1/4 cups orzo
2 cups chicken broth
1/2 to 3/4 cup finely grated parmesan cheese (don't use the green can cheese!!)
Pan with a lid (I used a wok like pan)

Directions

Sauté the onions in a little bit of olive oil over medium heat for 8-10 minutes until tender. Add the garlic and sauté for another minute. Add the dry orzo to the pan, and allow it to brown a bit (takes about 5 minutes). Add the chicken stock & bring it to a boil. Lower the heat, cover, and simmer 15 minutes, or until all liquid is absorbed. Fold in the parmesan and serve ASAP!

quick vegetarian chili

So I've been a full on vegetarian for about five months now, which means the past five months have been an adjustment for Zach & Caden. Thankfully, Zach is easy to please and Caden will eat pretty much anything. It's pretty easy to modify meals for meat or non-meat eaters. If we make quesadillas, they get steak and I get veggie. If we make burgers, they get the real thing I get the pitiful substitute. Or some nights, they humor me and eat vegetarian BBQ (quite good actually), fake chicken nuggets, or like tonight, vegetarian chili. I just adjusted my dad's quick chili recipe to fit my taste & substituted soy ground meat. It was really good & all three of us cleaned our bowls. Definitely one to add to the "decent vegetarian recipe appreciated by all family members" list.

cookie cake!

Zach & I threw this together pretty fast (5 mins prep, 20 mins baking). We modified another cookie cake recipe to get this one. I'm partial to the cookie company's cookie cake, but this one was pretty good.

Ingredients:
2 sticks unsalted butter, softened
1 cup packed light brown sugar
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 large eggs
2 cups plus 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/2 teaspoons pure vanilla extract
1 cup bittersweet chocolate chips
1 cup milk chocolate chips

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Cream the butter and sugars in a bowl. Add the eggs, beating well after the addition of each.

In a bowl, combine the flour, baking soda, and salt and mix with a whisk. Add to the butter mixture, mixing to incorporate, and add the vanilla extract. Fold in the chocolate chips. Spread across the bottom of a greases cookie sheet and bake until the edges are golden and the cookie is set but the center is still slightly soft, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in the pan for 10 minutes, then transfer to a wire rack to cool completely.

garlic noodles with tofu

tonight i made a noodle dish that i've been craving for the past few weeks. i wasn't sure how it was going to turn out since i combined like 4 recipes into one, but it ended up being pretty good. the only problem was that i thought i was using a nonstick pan, but it sucked at not sticking. i lost almost all the onions and garlic i was sauteing because of it. i transferred to a better pan and saved some of it... but in the end, the noodles lacked the strong garlic flavor i was going for.

Ingredients:
one bag egg noodles, cooked
olive oil
few handfuls of bean sprouts
block extra firm tofu, drained & cubed (or sub. chicken)
2-3 tablespoons of finely diced garlic
1 small onion, diced
chili sauce (i used sriracha hot chili sauce)
soy sauce
mirin (optional, but adds a good flavor)
salt & pepper
green onions for garnish

Saute onions and garlic in olive oil at a high heat & season with salt and pepper. Add tofu until brown & crisp on all sides. Add bean sprouts and saute for a minute. Stir in noodles & then add soy sauce, mirin, a tiny bit chili sauce to coat the noodles (add a little bit at a time until you get it right). Season with salt & garnish with green onions.

Flour Tortillas

Since I decided to go vegetarian last week, I've been feeling kinda bored with the things I've been eating. Eggs for breakfast, salad or vegetables for lunch, salad or vegetables for dinner, and yogurt as a snack in between meals. I mean, I'm not going to spend all day cooking some nice vegetarian dish that no one is going to eat except me. Anyway, while looking for some inspiration, I found this cookbook online, Veganomicon, which put me in a cooking mood. (& I was pretty hungry since all I had for dinner was a caesar salad). I decided to try & make some homemade flour tortillas & they were actually really good. Definitely different from store bought tortillas.

I couldn't find a recipe that I liked, but I got the basic concept and did it my own way. I mixed 2 cups of white flour, 3/4 cup of warm water, little bit of salt, and 1 tablespoon of canola oil. I was looking for a tortilla that had some fat in it, but not butter or lard. I let the dough sit covered for about 30minutes, and then rolled it into 16 little balls. Zach & I figured that each tortilla was about 60 calories. I rolled them out as thin as I could and then put them on a hot unoiled skillet for about 30 seconds on each side. When it starts to bubble, it's time to flip them over. Stack the cooked tortillas inside a folded cloth towel & put them in a ziplock; close the bag and let tortillas steam and soften.

They turned out pretty well. I told Zach I felt like a little old Mexican lady rolling out all those tortillas. I think next time I want to try it with a tablespoon or 2 of butter instead of the oil to see if there is a difference in taste. It would only add maybe 5 more calories per tortilla. It was a pretty good night time snack - we just put a little cheese on them and dipped them in salsa.

Salmon Teriyaki Bowl

One of my favorite meals is a salmon teriyaki bowl. It's easy to throw together and pretty versatile. It's just jasmine rice, topped with steamed vegetables and a grilled salmon filet. The best part is the homemade teriyaki sauce on top. You could use any protein (shrimp, salmon, dark or white meat chicken) and any vegetable (red & yellow bell peppers, bok choy, broccoli, asparagus, snow peas, etc.)

Teriyaki sauce:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/3 cup honey
1/4 cup soy sauce

& I bet you could use less oil. I've never played around with it to adjust it, but the sauce is pretty thin. Less oil may make it a little thicker.

yay!

2007 has been a big year for zach & me. marriage, hawaii, graduation, starting graduate school, caden starting kindergarten. well now we have another thing to add to our list: buying a house!!

we signed the purchase agreement on thursday, and we close on september 24th!