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.

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

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!

Adventures in Baking: Homemade Bagels

Tim Horton’s. Bruegger’s Bagels. Big Apple Bagels. Dunkin’ Donuts. Einstein Bros. You can give your money to them each morning.

Or. Or you can buy them and just toast them yourself.

There is an alternative #3. It is possible to bake your own bagels. If we can do it, so can you!

I just googled to find a recipe and I stumbled across this one from The Fresh Loaf, who took it from The Bread Baker’s Apprentice book.

My Recipe Notes

• The recipes says to keep the bagels in the fridge overnight after you form them into the bagels shapes… we totally didn’t do this. I didn’t realize it was an overnight deal, so once I did, I made sure they were in the fridge for about 6 hours. Let’s just pretend that 6 hours is a full night’s sleep for bagels.
• I highly recommend using your mixer to mix all the ingredients together but NOT to knead the dough. It is way too stiff.
• You are supposed to knead in another 3/4 cup flour, we could only force another 1/2 cup in and it was fine.
• I didn’t bother buying malt syrup, we just used brown sugar since we already had it on hand.

Just out of their good night’s day’s rest in the fridge

warm out of the oven and ready to eat!

They were super yummy, especially warm right out of the oven. We only made a plan variety, but once these are done we’ll definitely experiment a little bit with some more exciting flavors.

I decided to make these at first because I could not find bagels that were not packaged in plastic and I’d had bad experience with bakery bagels getting hard to quick (even in the fridge!). These were a great result. It made 12 bagels, and we froze half of them for next week’s breakfasts.

Hawaiian Sunday, Snow Monday

After a full day of skiing on Saturday at Crystal Mountain (we actually had powder and got to use our sweet Groupons) the Sunday is usually filled with all of the errands that we weren’t able to get done before.

Sunday started off with breakfast at Northside Grill, where, apparently, it was Hawaiian Sunday. You could get some special things like pineapple juice and pancakes with pineapple, but I stuck with something a bit less Hawaiian.

Spinach Omelette, Hash Browns, & Toast

We spent Sunday by visiting my uncle in the hospital after breakfast. He’s been in the hospital for almost 14 months now and they think he should be able to go home finally in about 6-8 weeks. It was amazing to even see him sitting upright in a wheelchair.

The rest of the afternoon was filled with laundry, grocery shopping, the gym (!!!), and dinner.

Sunday dinner was BBQ tofu and Israeli couscous with zucchini and carrot.

Israeli Couscous with Zucchini & Carrots

makes about 3 servings

Ingredients
1 cup Israeli couscous, dry
2 cups water
1 zucchini, shredded
1 carrot, shredded
1 tablespoon olive oil

Heat olive in a small pot over medium high heat and add in carrot and zucchini. Stir fry for a while then add in dry couscous. Incorporate well. Add water, bring to a boil, then back down to simmering.

Cook until all of the water has been absorbed, about 15 minutes. Stir every so often so that it doesn’t stick. I added in some spices as well – granulate onion, red pepper flakes, and a bit of Lawry’s seasoning salt.

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On the exercise front, I actually made it to the gym on Sunday to go running, which was my goal. I ran two miles, with speeds from 5.2 up to 5.7mph, then stopped to do some other stuff. I did crunches with the ten pound weight, dips, and pikes on the pilates ball and knee tucks. I finished up with another mile, making it three total miles. I am doing about 11:30 minute miles. Not terribly great, but I don’t think I’ll ever be a very speedy runner. I’d rather go for distance.

How is your week going so far? Are you managing to keep up with everything you’ve had planned for the week? I’ve got a Slow Food Huron Valley meet-up tonight at Silvio’s that I am super pumped about. They’ll also be talking about their trip to Terra Madre in Italy! Have a good Tuesday!

Tofu Scramble with Veggies and Couscous

I have a tendency to just get to cooking and make up dinner as I go along. Not going to lie, it was semi-planned. I knew it would have tofu, carrots, and broccoli. But after that, it really is all up to chance.

makes 2 servings, with some couscous leftover

Ingredients
Half block of tofu, cut into cubes
3 carrots, peeled and sliced into rounds
Crown of broccoli, cut up
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon brown mustard seeds
1 teaspoon turmeric
1 teaspoon curry powder
1 cup dry couscous
2 cups water
2 tablespoons peanut oil

Note: You can use extra virgin olive oil if you like. I’m not sure which one is better for you, but I love the way that peanut oil smells.

1. Heat peanut oil in a pan over medium heat. Add in cumin seeds and mustard seeds, cover.
2. When they start popping, add in tofu. Stir fry tofu and break it down into small pieces and add in carrot and turmeric. Stir to incorporate. Add water as needed so nothing sticks or burns.
3. Once carrots have gotten softer, add some water, the broccoli, and cover to steam the broccoli.
4. Halfway through broccoli steaming, add in curry powder and stir well to incorporate. Steam until broccoli is at your desired crunchiness level.
5. When you start the broccoli steaming, get two cups of water to a boil in a small sauce pan. Once water boils, add couscous, cover, and take off heat. It is done in about five minutes.

I never understood how people could actually eat tofu as if it was scrambled eggs…. well now, I can totally understand. Maybe I’ll have to try out one of those ‘egg’ strata or quiche type dishes from the Veganomicon one of these days.

You should have about half the couscous you made as leftovers. It works out great substituted for rice in a stir fry or cold in a non-pasta pasta salad.

Almost Dining Out

Yesterday worked out pretty amazing!
I got in my double workout, got some posts done, and had no meat the whole day.

Schedule
5am: wake up
6am: work out with Sarah
7:40am to 5pm: work!
5:15pm: 45 minute ride on the road bike (up on a trainer)
6pm: shower
6:30pm: dinner!

Dinner was one of the meals that I cooked Sunday – Crushed Lentil Soup with Lemon. I tried a little bit on Sunday when it was nice and hot from the stove, and it was just as good re-heated.

The whole spread for me: Soup with some paprika and red pepper flakes, pita bread, hummus, and a tangelo…. lentil soup with pita bread, just like I would normally get at a restaurant!

I managed to do almost everything I had planned on doing today. Two work out days always make me feel like I’m so hardcore, even if one of the workouts just is on the bike trainer while watching some Anthony Bourdain.

This morning’s goal is to get up a half hour earlier, at 5:30am, and ride on the trainer for a half hour before taking my shower and getting ready for work. I get to be chauffeured to work again tomorrow by Tim since my car won’t start, yay.

Busy Sunday

Busy Sunday.

I’ve said this before, but I don’t do lazy Sundays. Unless you’re talking about Lazy Sunday, which is pretty good. It also makes me want to have a cupcake….

Alright, so back to this weekend and today. On Saturday, Tim, I, and three friends left Ann Arbor at 4:30am to head up to Crystal Mountain for a day of skiing. It was super cold, single digits all day. Thankfully the sun was out and it wasn’t windy. Best part? Getting to stop by the Roadhouse Mexican Restaurant in Benzonia, MI, a couple miles away from Crystal Mountain.

Last week was less than stellar on the working out and getting stuff done. It is really hard for me to feel motivated to do anything when I get home from work and it is dark before you know it. Add in getting to work when it is still dark out and it’s a recipe for disaster.

So today, after breakfast, an Irish Cuisine cooking class at Hollanders, and grocery shopping (Co-op, Whole Foods, and Tsai Grocery), I spent about three hours cooking meals for tonight and the rest of the week.

Spaghetti with meat sauce
Spaghetti with marinara and zucchini
Crushed Lentil Soup
Japanese style curry, with beef, potatoes, and carrot

Tonight we had the spaghetti and marinara sauce, both from Al Dente Pasta (Whitmore Lake, MI). I used some of the ground beef from Tim’s uncle in his, and sautéed up a bunch of zucchini for mine. We have enough sauce leftover for another serving of each.

Bedtime soon, up early tomorrow to work out with Sarah!