Saturday Planning – 3/19/2011 to 3/25/2011

Planning my menus on Saturday before my grocery shopping trip is my go-to method for keeping organized and saving money by only buying what I need.

With that, here is my meal plan for 3/19/2011 to 3/25/2011, in no particular order. It’s pretty boring, since there is a lot of leftovers and I have no help in the brainstorming.

• Spaghetti
• Bean burgers, couscous, zucchini
• Finishing up leftover Indian, Thai (in freezer), etc
• Leftover Beef Stew

I’m really not feeling like cooking anything new, or anything at all right now. It’s so nice outside and I have so much training to do. Tim will be leaving, I think on Thursday, for skiing Utah… so I’m trying to just finish up as much food as we have in the kitchen. Feels good sometimes to finish up all the leftovers and start again.

I’ll probably be posting less too, or at least, not sticking to any schedule. Life is getting busy, even though I’m making it that way. It seems that between working, working out/training, and finding time to eat food I don’t have too much time for anything else.

Opposites, Old & New

This week has been mostly leftovers… which is AWESOME because the weather has decided to be amazing

These two recipes are, just as the title says, opposites of each and one is a new-to-me recipe and one is a usual one. An old dish, a new one. A vegan dish and a very, very non-vegan dish.

I found this recipe on The Food Network’s website, not on purpose though. We recently bought one of those really heavy dutch oven type pots and since we’ve only used it once so far I figured it was high time that we took it for another drive.

I found this by Googling “dutch oven recipes” and this looked like the best one. I was actually surprised at the number of recipes for breads!

It took a while to prepare this and the beef actually had to marinate over night. I was wary of the marinade since it was AN ENTIRE BOTTLE OF RED WINE with just some crushed garlic. The beef was purple! Actually very yummy and you could only taste a tiny tiny bit of the wine after it was cooked.

I consider this to be a staple dish on my menu planning since I don’t need to look at any directions (or it could just be simple… that too!). BBQ Tofu (original recipe from the Veganomicon), steamed broccoli, and Israeli couscous flavored with curry powder.

I’ve finished up a whole bottle of this barbecue sauce just from making this! We can’t grill at our apartment complex because we have a charcoal grill (boo) so this is the closest I get to “barbecue.” I bet someone in the South is dying when I say that.

So there you have it! An old dish, a new one. A vegan dish and a very, very non-vegan dish.

Quinoa Chili & the Kitty

This past Saturday night I stole another recipe from (never home) maker and made her In-a-pinch Chili… with quinoa! I’d never even thought of adding quinoa to chili before as a way to pack in some protein.

It was super easy but my only worry as I was cooking it was that the taste of the vegetable broth was very, well, un-chili-like at first. I added a lot more spices than in the recipe (chili powder, paprika, cayenne pepper, and red pepper flakes) and in the end you couldn’t tell the taste of the vegetable broth. It was just yummy chili goodness. Also, I used diced garlic tomatoes that I had in the cupboard already instead of whole tomatoes. They cooked down really nicely.

I’ve got a bunch of leftovers so I’m taking some to work for today’s lunch

Also on the agenda for today’s post, kitty pictures!
In case you didn’t know it, we have a kitty. She doesn’t really have a name… we call her Kitty or Cat. Yup, we’re creative. Her ‘professional’ name is Leeloo Dallas Multipass (or something like that) in tribute to her being orange and Milla Jovovich rocking sweet orange hair in The Fifth Element.

Saturday Planning – 3/12 to 3/18

Planning my menus on Saturday before my grocery shopping trip is my go-to method for keeping organized and saving money by only buying what I need.

With that, here is my meal plan for 3/12/2011 to 3/18/2011, in no particular order. It’s pretty boring, since there is a lot of leftovers and I have no help in the brainstorming.

• Quinoa Chili from (Never Home)Maker (vegan)
• BBQ Tofu, Israeli Couscous, Broccoli & Kale (vegan)
• Leftover Vegetable Korma and Spinach/Potato/Chickpea curry (vegan)
• Beef Stew (link)

It’s the second week in a row that I’m stealing a recipe from (Never Home) Maker. Sorry! I just looks really good. I’ve made lots of chilis before but none with quinoa, or any other grain, in them. Chili cook-off is this week at my work (I think, if it actually happens) but I won’t bring anything in. I’m sort of a non-participator.

I also picked a second new recipe this week – a beef stew that I’ll make tomorrow. It was actually my first time buying wine for anything (since I don’t really drink) and I had to ask the wine lady to help me find a red wine for cooking We’ve got some chuck roast from the quarter of a cow we bought from my husband’s uncle (that he raised!) that we’ll use for the recipe.

Tomorrow’s Race

Tomorrow I am running my second 5k – the Shamrocks & Shenanigans 5k in downtown Ann Arbor. There is a Daily Mile meet-up afterwards that I might go to as well. Need to decide… I really need friends in Ann Arbor though. Such a loner.

Vegetable Korma – Thai Style, from (never home)maker

Every week I try to include a new recipe or idea into one of my dinners. I get so bored doing stir fry with rice after stir fry with noodles that I need something new every now and again.

I had a tough time finding a new recipe this week, all the usual recipe websites were failing me in their vegetarian recipe section (don’t suggest I make roasted potatoes! that’s not a full meal!).

I found this recipe from blogger (never home)maker while going through my RSS feed over the weekend and decided that it had one the prize of being my weekly new recipe!

Honestly, I couldn’t find any flaws with the recipe!
One tip is that coriander seeds are NOT a good substitute for coriander powder, unless you plan on grinding them up before you use them. I don’t mind coriander powder, but biting into a coriander seed always feels soapy… I picked around them pretty well I also just realized now that I didn’t use any bay leaves, oops!

This was very good though, not too spicy and the coconut milk/peanut butter mix made it really creamy.

When all the veggies and chickpeas were cooking I did add a little bit of water every so often so it didn’t dry out. Served with regular white rice as the last time I tried to bake naan it was… disastrous.

I love finding tasty foods that are dairy-free but are still really creamy – the coconut milk and peanut butter definitely accomplishes that. It’s also vegan and gluten-free, so it’s a really great recipe for everyone. Alright, except for peanut-allergies. Darn.

Links
(never home)maker Blog
Vegetable Korma – Thai style Recipe

A Tale of Two Curries

It was the best of curries….

….well. It certainly was not the worst of curries. That’d suck.

My love for curry runs pretty deep and last week I made two different types: an Indian-ish curry with chickpeas, potatoes, and spinach, which was a brand-new recipe for me; and a normal quick-and-easy Thai mussaman curry with tofu, potatoes, and carrots.

Curry with Chickpeas, Potatoes, and Spinach
I found this recipe randomly on Food.com’s website. I really wanted to try it with the sweet potatoes, but there was no way that Tim would’ve eaten it so regular potatoes were a must.

It ended up being pretty tasty! I was a bit apprehensive about the diced tomatoes, since I am really am not a fan of most tomatoes, but they cooked down nicely. It was a bit more of a dry curry compared to the Thai curry I made.

Thai Mussaman Curry
This is a commonly made curry in my repetoire of easy meals. I’ve been able to find a brand of curry paste called Maesri that I really like.

1 can of curry paste + 2 cans coconut milk + whatever veggies/protein you want. Simple. Longest part is waiting for the rice to finish cooking.

Besides being fast and easy, it’s pretty cheap too What more could you ask for? One recipe makes about six portions for us. It’s also really good over udon noodles. Not authentic, but meh… details.

I also read on Twitter today that eating curry can help prevent cancer and Alzheimer’s… now we have another reason to eat it!

Saturday Planning – 3/5 to 3/11

Planning my menus on Saturday before my grocery shopping trip is my go-to method for keeping organized and saving money by only buying what I need.

With that, here is my meal plan for 3/5/2011 to 3/11/2011, in no particular order. It’s pretty boring, since there is a lot of leftovers and I have no help in the brainstorming.

• Vegetable Korma from (never home)maker
• Spaghetti with zucchini
• Leftover Potato, Spinach, & Chickpea Curry
• Bean Burgers with couscous, broccoli
• Leftover Mussaman Curry

Exercise Planning

Also, due to the races I’m participating in this year that I am training for, I thought it would be a good idea to make an exercise calendar. Since I need to train for biking and running races, I want to make sure that I don’t do too much of one of the other and am ill-prepared.

Each week will be basically the same in March, with the exception of any other appointments I have.

• Sunday: Six Week Six Pack
• Monday: Gym (morning), Bike (outside or trainer)
• Tuesday: Six Week Six Pack, Running
• Wednesday: Bike (trainer), Gym
• Thursday: Six Week Six Pack, Running
• Friday: Six Week Six Pack, Bike (outside or trainer)
• Saturday: Six Week Six Pack, Running

Now all I need is a heavy dose of motivation to wake up and work out…

Recipe: Quinoa & Greens Pilaf

I was searching for a word for this dinner I made on Saturday night.
It turned out really well so I knew I wanted to share it, but in order to that, it needed a name!

Casserole? No, it’s not baked.
Stir fry? Not quite.
Pilaf? Yea, I think that’ll work.

Quinoa & Greens Pilaf

about 4 servings

Ingredients
1 cup uncooked quinoa
2 cups water (for quinoa)
3 leeks
1 bunch of rainbow chard
1 bunch of kale
1.5 tablespoons peanut oil
3 cloves of garlic, crushed
Sea salt and other spices to taste

1.) Wash and roughly chop kale and chard. Chop the hard stems of the chard into smaller pieces.
2.) Chop white and light green ends of the leeks, wash.
3.) Start cooking quinoa: Boil two cups of water, add quinoa. Let boil for a minute or two and then simmer until water is absorbed.
4.) While quinoa is cooking, heat peanut oil in a high-sided frying pan and stir fry garlic, leeks, and chard until they soften.
5.) Add in kale and chard, plus about 1/4 cup water along with whatever spices you want, mix, and cover. I didn’t use any soy sauce in this one.
6.) When kale and chard are wilted, add in quinoa, and stir everything to blend it together.

Saturday Planning – 2/26 to 3/4

Planning my menus on Saturday before my grocery shopping trip is my go-to method for keeping organized and saving money by only buying what I need.

And I’m finally back! I’ll make another post, maybe tomorrow, about all of our (mis-)adventures out in Colorado, but for right now, I really need to plan a menu for this week!

With that, here is my meal plan for 2/26/2011 to 3/4/2011, in no particular order.

• Quinoa with leeks, garlicky stir-fried greens (kale/chard)
• Spaghetti with zucchini
• Potato, Spinach, & Chickpea Curry (link)
• Bean Burgers with couscous, broccoli
• Mussaman Curry with potatoes, carrots, tofu
• Leftovers… that curry makes a lot

It might not seem like much to get… but we always end up doing a ton of running around on Saturday. It makes me so glad that the husband gets prototype cars from work (with free gas!) to drive around so I don’t have to drive my car that sounds like it’s going to explode.

We’ve got the food co-op, Whole Foods, Great Harvest, Asian grocer, and the mall to stop by today. Better get going!

A Few of My Favorites Things…

Sorry, Maria, I’m not so much a fan of the raindrops on roses (although I’m cool with whiskers on kittens).

The February posting challenge for the Michigan Lady Food Bloggers group is to write a post about your favorite kitchen gadgets.

I picked two – a garlic press and my Cuisinart mini food processor.

Behold! The most beautiful garlic press picture the Internets had to offer!

I probably use garlic in more than 50% of the dishes that I make so my garlic press (same kind in the picture actually) has been a great investment. All metal, easy to clean, and it hasn’t broken yet! I could never bring myself to buying garlic in a jar. There is something about a big bulb of elephant ear garlic that makes me happy inside

Cuisinart Mini Food Processor

Cuisinart Mini-Prep Food Processor – how do I love thee, let me count the ways… You help me make yummy homemade curry paste! You chop onions for me so I don’t cry! You can make peanuts into peanut butter! You chop carrots for lentil soup!

Two great investments. There would be many more great investments if only my kitchen could learn to be greater as well….