A Spinach Feta Couscous Affair

Oh hello! I made this recipe a few days ago and it was good.

Ingredients: 

• 1 12 ounce box couscous (about 1 1/2 cups)** I used 1 1/2 cups of whole wheat couscous and I feel like it was really heavy on the couscous. I might cut it down to 1 cup or even 3/4 cup (and the appropriately scaled down amount of broth) if I make this again.
• 2 1/4 cups vegetable broth
• 1 onion, chopped
• 1/2 pound mushrooms, sliced
• 1/2 tsp garlic, minced
• 1 tbsp lemon juice
• 1 tsp oregano
• 1 bunch fresh spinach (I buy my spinach in a big box so IDK, I just used 4 handfuls. I'd maybe use even more next time.)
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1 tsp red pepper flakes (I added these because some of the recipe reviews said this was kind of bland. It was good but surprisingly hot. Next time I might use slightly less. Don't use any if you don't like spice, duh.)

Anyway, boil the broth and put in the couscous. Cover it and turn off the heat. (If you've never made couscous before, read the package. It's easy though, just cover it in boiling liquid until it absorbs all of it, like 5-10 minutes. Fluff it with a fork when it's done. Eat it all the time. Get the whole wheat kind.)

Meanwhile cut everything that needs to be cut. Sautee the onion, mushroom, and garlic. Add the oregano & lemon juice (& red pepper). Then put the spinach on top until it wilts. Toss all that stuff in with the veggies and then finally add the feta! MMM.

Vegan Garlic Lentil Thing

A friend of mine raved about this Salmon with Lentils recipe from Ina Garten, so I decided to make it. Without the salmon. And leaving out ingredients I didn't happen to have lying around.

• 1⁄2 pound green lentils (it called for French lentils, but I am a patriot)
• Olive oil
• 1 yellow onion
• 1 tsp thyme (it called for fresh, but I used dried)
• 1 tsp minced garlic
•  4 chopped carrots (it called for carrots and celery but I didn't have celery, so I just used extra carrots)
• 1 1/2 cups vegetable broth
• 2 Tbsp tomato paste
• 2 Tbsp balsamic vinegar (Ina specifically called for "good red wine vinegar," but I didn't have any red wine vinegar. Also, I'm not sure if my balsamic vinegar is good. It's probably just "average.")

This was pretty cheap vinegar, but it does appear to have survived a volcanic eruption.

 Anyway. First, soak the lentils in boiling water for 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, start cooking the onion with the oil, thyme, and salt & pepper until the onion turns clear. Then throw in the garlic for 2 more minutes.

Then drain the lentils and add them to the pan. Then add everything else except the vinegar and simmer for 20 minutes.

Finally, add the vinegar and take it off the heat.

I ate this over brown rice, but if you are interested in serving it over salmon, you can consult Ina Garten.

I find that I don't really have the photography skills to make lentils look appealing, but this was easy to make and really good! The vinegar gives it a really good flavor kick.

Dinner and a Movie!

My friends Ryan, Shilpa, and I decided to start having themed dinner and movie nights! We started off with Howl, the new biopic of Allen Ginsberg. (It was a good movie, by the way. James Franco deserves all his accolades.) We wanted a 50s-ish vibe for the food, so we had vegetarian shepherd's pie and blueberry pie! It was delightful!

My friend Ryan made this pie:

Doesn't it look pie-y?? It was delicious. But it's not Ryan's blog so I'm not going to tell you about the pie.
 
I made the shepherd's pie and it was also delicious. Shepherd's pie used to be a fave comfort food for me before I went vegetarian, and it never occurred to me to make a vegetarian version. My friends had never had shepherd's pie before in any form, and this recipe made them believers. It's a super easy, yummy, filling recipe. I adapted it from this recipe.

Ingredients:
2 bags of Morningstar Farms Mealstarter Crumbles (You could probably get by with 1 bag and some extra vegetables, but personally I liked having a pretty big layer of fake meat)
1 onion
8 small potatoes (or 4 big ones)
2 carrots
1 cup frozen corn
1 15 oz can of vegetable broth
Olive oil
Butter/margarine
S&P

First up, peel and quarter the potatoes and boil them for 20-30 minutes.

MEANWHILE cut the other vegetables and start browning the onion in oil, for about 10 minutes. Then add the fake meat crumbles and let them get warmed up. Then add the corn and carrots, and stir in about half the can of vegetable broth. Spread this mixture into the bottom layer of a casserole dish.

THEN mash the potatoes. Add a smidge of butter and the other half of the broth. Pat them lovingly over the top of the fake meat layer.

Bake it at 400 for about 30 minutes, until the potatoes form a golden brown crust.

Then eat it!!

This recipe serves like... 4 people who like to eat, or 6 skinny people.

PS for our next Dinner & Movie party, we're planning to watch The Birds. Let me know if you have any vegetarian bird-themed meal ideas!

Thai Tofu Curry

I just made this curry for lunch and it was amaaaazing. And pretty simple, despite the pretty long list of ingredients. I sort of mashed up this recipe and this one and altered it according to what I had on hand.

Sauce:
1 can coconut milk
4 cloves of garlic
2 Tbsp Thai chili sauce
Juice of an orange
Juice of 1/2 a lime
2 Tbsp soy sauce
1 Tbsp brown sugar
1 Tbsp cumin powder
1 Tbsp cumin seeds
2 tsp curry powder

Then I blended it all in the blender and set it aside.

Tastes better than it looks

OK then I cut up:

1 onion (I think next time I make this I would do 2 onions. But the one I had was pretty small so maybe just 1 big onion. Whatev.)

1 yellow pepper

1 tomato

1 portabello mushroom (because it was about to go bad, otherwise I would definitely just use brown mushrooms or something cheaper)

1 pack of cubed tofu

(The recipes I cribbed from suggested: cauliflower, snow peas, chick peas, yams... I think you could put pretty much whatever vegetables you have lying around into this sauce.)

I started cooking the onions and peppers in a little bit of oil and then poured on the sauce and brought it to a boil.

 

Then I let it simmer for a few minutes and then dumped in everything else and simmered it for like ten minutes.

And then I ate it and it was AWESOME.

I ate it with some Minute Rice because I acquired a box of it when we closed down the camp kitchen for the summer. It was fine even though you are supposed to eat Thai food with jasmine rice. Whatevs.

let's talk about chili!

I love chili! And it's soo easy to make. In college I looked up a recipe for chili because I had no idea what I was doing. The recipe I found called for a packet of onion soup powder mix, which tastes awesome in chili (but that stuff is too expensive in the DR). My mom likes to put Reese's peanut butter cups in chili, but I feel this is a waste of Reese's peanut butter cups. What are your CHILI SECRETS? Tell me them.

Here's a super basic vegetarian chili recipe. I just made it yesterday with what I had lying around. It was delicious! The recipe is nothing special, but it's a place to start if you've never made chili before.

Ingredients:
1 can diced tomatoes
1 can kidney beans
1 can black beans
1 onion
some garlic
hot sauce to taste (I use three or four good shakes)
pepper to taste
(At home, I loved to put celery in chili! But celery is hard to find in the DR.)

First, chop the onion and garlic and sautee them together in a little bit of oil.

When the onions turn clear, take them off the heat. Dump all the ingredients into a pot. Don't drain the beans or tomatoes, just pour the liquids into the pot too. I don't add any water besides the tomato and bean juice.

Yumm. Bring it up to a boil and let it simmer for like half an hour. Stir it occasionally or it will burn to the bottom of your pot. Trust me :( Anyway, that's it! You made chili!

But wait! There is the question of chili TOPPINGS. Some people say sour cream. Others, shredded cheese. Or corn chips. Of course, none of these are terribly healthy. Nutritionally speaking, your chili is better off without any of those things. Whatevs! Here's my new favorite chili topping:

 

QUESO HOJUELITAS. Hojuelitas ("little sheets/pieces") are this awesome snack food that for some reason is not widely available in the US. It's basically a combination of a Cheeto and a Frito. And they are perfect on chili.

Yum!

veggie peanut noodles!

My friend Amanda taught me how to make this sauce and my friend Stephanie taught me how to make noodle stir fry with ramen noodles. But I was the one who combined them!! This recipe is sooo good and pretty easy. But it feels so fancy to make your own sauce!

Peanut sauce ingredients:
1/2 cup peanut butter
2-3 tablespoons soy sauce
1/4 cup-ish water
1 tablespoon sugar
1 teaspoon ginger (the sugar and the ginger are optional & to taste. You could also try some garlic powder or whatever suits your fancy)

 

Put everything except the water in a bowl and stir it. Stir in the water a little bit at a time until you get the consistency you want.

 

Saucy! Make this first and set aside. OR, buy some pre-made sauce and skip that part of the recipe.

Noodle stir fry ingredients:

Some vegetables. I used 1 carrot, 1 onion, and 2 little peppers. Broccoli would be good but it's really expensive in the DR.

2 eggs (optional. Meat could also be optional here, I guess)

2 packets of ramen noodles (any flavor--you won't use the seasoning packet)

5 cloves of garlic, or a few spoonfuls of pre-minced garlic

Sesame oil (sesame oil is a little expensive but I must emphasize how totally delicious it is. If you must, you could use a different type of oil here).

I forgot to put the eggs in the picture, but y'all know what those look like, right?

Hey, maybe the reason Roland hasn't posted much at CB the last few years is that he's been busy building an oil empire!

Anyway, cut all the veggies up into bite size pieces. Mince the garlic.

 

Now! The timing here is a liiittle tricky, but not too bad. Put a pot of water on to boil. Then, start stir-frying the vegetables and garlic in some sesame oil. When the water starts to boil, put the noodles in. Don't cook them all the way! Leave them in the water for about a minute and take them out. (Throw the seasoning packets away unless you are super super thrifty and have some alternate use for ramen seasoning. I don't.) Meanwhile, crack the eggs into the veggies and scramble them in, and then dump the peanut sauce over it.

 

Mmm, almost ready! OK, after the noodles have been in for a minute-ish, take them out with a slotted spoon (or drain them) and toss them over the veggie-egg-sauce mixture. Stir fry the noodles in with everything else for a few more minutes.

Mmm-mmm good!! This serves 2 Renatas. It might serve three light eaters.

falafel, dominican style

Ingredients
1 can of chickpeas
1 medium-ish onion
2 spoonfuls-ish flour
1 egg (if you want to make this vegan you can drop the egg and use more flour, but the egg makes it less crumbly)
Spices of some sort... I use whole cumin seeds, because I just happen to have a big bag of them and I like the texture. Don't go out and buy cumin seeds, though. You could use regular cumin. Or garlic powder maybe, whatever.
S&P
Oil (I like to use like half sunflower oil and half olive oil, but whatever)

So, you're actually supposed to use parsley and stuff for falafel? But this recipe works with what's readily available in the DR, and it's delicious and super easy.

Make sure the onion isn't too big! Or don't use a whole onion if you have a big one. It will make your falafel TOO ONIONY D:

Anyway, first step is mash chickpeas! I'm posting a picture of my mortal & pestle again because I can! But you can use a fork or blender.

Mash mash mash!  Then, dice the onion (or I guess throw it in with the chickpeas if you're one of those fancy "food processor" types) and mix them together in a bowl. Crack in the egg, shake in the spices, and stir it all together. Add in some flour a spoonful at a time and keep stirring. You want it to be solid enough to hold together in balls. Heat up some oil for a few minutes, then toss in some golf ball-sized patties.

 

Fry that shit until it's golden brown (1-2 minutes on each side). You will only be hurting yourself if you get impatient and take them out sooner! I know from experience.

Okay like 1/4th of these end up getting eaten almost immediately after getting taken out of the oil and salted and peppered. SOOO GOOD when they're fresh!  Another option? On a wrap with some lettuce and tomato and whatnot. Also it's great with tahini sauce (1 spoonful tahini + the juice of one lime + a little water), but I didn't have any limes so I just used ranch dressing here. Also good!

 

Fun fact: I worked at Subway when they first unveiled their "low carb wraps." I was always getting yelled at by the manager for not being a very good wrapper, a trait that continues to this very day. Other fun fact: this is a spinach wrap, not just moldy.

This would probably serve four people. I usually get three meals out of it, but that's because I'm a total fatkid with the fresh falafels and eat like half of them then. They are good cold in wraps or sandwiches, too. 

Baked Mac and Cheese

When I'm sick (as I am now, with bronchitis) the only thing that ever really makes me feel better is yummy comfort food. Because I'm absolutely craving this baked mac and cheese right now (but can't find the motivation to get out of bed and actually make it) I figured I'd blog about it!


INGREDIENTS:

3 tablespoons butter
3 tablespoons flour
2 1/2 cups whole milk (or skim, if that's your preference)
1 pound cheddar cheese (16 oz block)
3/4 pound monterey jack cheese (10 oz block)
1 tablespoon dijon mustard
Pinch of nutmeg
1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (more, if you want a bigger kick!)
Salt and pepper to taste
1 box (1 pound) cavatappi pasta (any kind of macaroni will do, if you can't find cavatappi)
Plain bread crumbs

*************************


Cut cheese into 1/2 inch cubes and place in fridge for later.

Pre-heat oven to 350. Butter shallow 2 1/2 quart baking dish. In large sauce pan, melt butter. Add flour and cook over moderate heat for 2 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add milk and cook over moderate heat, whisking constantly until thickened, approximately 3-5 minutes. Add half of the cheddar and half of the jack cheese and cook over low heat, stirring until melted. Stir in mustard, nutmeg and cayenne; season with salt and pepper.

In another pan, cook pasta in salted water until al dente. Drain very well and return to pan. Add cheese sauce and the remaining cheese cubes and stir until combined. Spread macaroni in prepared baking dish.

Sprinkle top with bread crumbs and bake for 45 minutes, or until bubbling and golden on top.



I really love this mac and cheese because, not only is it super easy to make, it's super tasty. And with the dijon mustard and cayenne pepper, it's definitely not your grandmother's mac and cheese! This recipe serves 6, so you can always cut it in half or have friends over for dinner! (of, if you're like me, you'll wind up feeding your neighbors or co-workers LOL)