Sunday, March 12, 2017

Roasted Chickpea and Tomato Salad

I found a unicorn today!

A recipe whose time estimate was accurate (and I even had enough downtime to almost finish cleaning before it was done!)

I am in general slow at prep, which means steps often take a lot longer than the recipe estimates and I end up with things like the oven on and heated well before I'm ready, or the pan getting too hot. I usually compensate by front loading the prep steps, even if the recipe calls for doing some of the prep concurrently.

Today's recipe is courtesy of Mealime, https://app.mealime.com/#/meals/3792935. I'm not sure if you can get to this link without signing up, but if you can't, it's called "Roasted Chickpea & Tomato Salad with Arugula & Feta" and you should sign up for Mealime because it is a wonderful site and the base version is free. It lets you pick your meal types (I've got pescetarian because of my husband), how many people, how many portions, how many meals, and generates a meal plan and grocery shopping list for you. You can swap out meals before you commit to your meal plan if some of them obviously won't work for you. With the paid version, you can choose to include previous favorites in your plan and track nutrition/content, and a bunch of other features. I've been using it approximately every other week for a while now.


On to the unicorn.

Ingredients
 - Spinach (original recipe called for arugula, store didn't have any)
 - Feta or bleu cheese (I've tried them both, I think I like feta better on this salad).
 - ~30 oz garbanzo beans (1 big can or two small ones)
 - 1 medium onion (originall recipe called for red; I used yellow)
 - 3 cloves of garlic
 - 1 pint cherry tomatoes
 - 1 lemon
 - Salt, pepper, dijon mustard, olive oil, oregano (Original recipe calls for 1 tsp mustard, 1 tsp oregano, 1/4 tsp salt, 1/4 tsp pepper, and 4 tbsp olive oil. I don't measure.)

1. Preheat oven to 450 degrees
2. Rinse/drain chickpeas
3. Slice onion into half rings.
4. Wash and cut tomatoes in half
5. Put chickpeas, tomatoes, onion on baking sheet. Drizzle with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
 6. Roast the veggies for 10-15 minutes until the chickpeas are golden and popping. Mine took closer to 15 minutes.
 7. Peel/mince garlic. Put in a small bowl
 8. Juice the lemon into the bowl with the garlic
 9. Add salt, pepper, mustard, oregano, and olive oil to the bowl. Mix well.
 10. Add spinach, cheese, and roasted veggies to a salad bowl and toss. Serve with the dressing.


Some notes from the recipe:
 - The original recipe calls for drying the chickpeas before roasting. This is probably a good idea. I dried them some after rinsing but they were still a bit soggy when I pulled them out of the oven.
 - I prefer feta to bleu cheese in this recipe. Usually I like bleu better. I would probably be ok with either if I roasted the cheese with the vegetables, which is what I will try next time.
 - I like garlic, so i threw in an extra clove.
 - I drizzled a bit too much olive oil on veggies. It wasn't too bad but they would have roasted better if I'd been lighter.
 - Spinach works just fine in place of arugula. I imagine any other greens would too.
 - I accidentally at least doubled the mustard. It came out fine, although if you don't like mustard it wouldn't be a good dressing for you.


I will definitely make this again. I had everything I used in prep work washed and dried before the chickpeas came out of the oven. It was great!


Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Struggling with not buying food at lunch

Long time no see.

Lately, I've been struggling to NOT buy food at lunch. The reasons for this vary,but usually end up on the theme of "I don't have anything quick to bring to lunch today" or "I'm really tired of eating this same thing over again".  Solution? Meal planning.


Today is Tuesday and I just got back from Thanksgiving, so this week is easier to plan for, which is a good first start to a week.

Breakfasts I have more or less sorted out. Sauteed chopped veggies with two eggs, toast if need be. If I'm running late and need to leave before breakfast, I can go with oatmeal at work instead.

Grocery shopping today: Chili ingredients, breakfast ingredients, salad ingredients.
Cooking today: Dumplings
Cooking tomorrow: (Slow cooker) Chili


Tuesday Lunch: General Tzo's chicken
Tuesday Dinner: (Snacks, salad maybe) Will probably not be very hungry

Wednesday Lunch: Leftover stuffing, roasted vegetables, glazed carrots
Wednesday Dinner: Bean Chili

Thursday Lunch: Dumplings
Thursday Dinner: Salad + Pollock burgers

Friday Lunch: Chili
Friday Dinner: Lentils, or salad, or dumplings.


On Saturday, I will re-evaluate how many servings of food I have left and plan out next week's menu.

In addition, I am going to start keeping an index of recipes and their shopping lists in Evernote.
Back to experimental cooking! What do you do when you have a pumpkin in the fridge and receive a cauliflower in your produce grab-bag? Cauliflower pumpkin curried lentils. Indian-ish (due to lack of some key spices, namely, the curry leaves).


Have to make garam masala, recipe here: http://allrecipes.com/recipe/easy-garam-masala/
Substituted caraway for the ground coriander. Followed directions mostly, a bit extra cloves because I had to grind them myself.

Made my own curry paste, recipe here: http://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/recipe/easy-homemade-curry-pastes/ . I didn't roast the spices like I was supposed to, and I substituted the 3 tbsps coconut with another 3 tbsps almonds. Also, avocado oil for groundnut oil. Dried parsley for a fresh bunch of coriander. Also, caraway seeds for ground coriander again. Also a tablespoon or two of death sauce instead of green chilies

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/22387/pumpkin+cauliflower+and+lentil+curry

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

Shrimp and white wine sauce

What to do when you're running out of things in your kitchen and you're trying not to buy groceries before you leave for the weekend: Fall back on your preserved, your long-lasting, and your frozen.

Original recipe was taken from Emeril Lagasse's garlic wine recipe, modified for what I had on hand.
http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/garlic-wine-sauce-recipe.html



1 onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
1 carrot, sliced very thinly
~1 tsp celery seeds, to taste
~1 tsp black pepper, to taste
1/3 of a lime
2 cups white wine (I used Frisk's Prickly Riesling, as it was what I had on hand)
1 tbsps butter
olive oil

  1. Sautee the onion, garlic, and carrot in olive oil in a saucepan. 
  2. When the onions are translucent, add the celery seeds. Continue sauteeing until the onions are starting to brown and the carrots are cooked through.
  3. Add the wine, black pepper, lime, and butter. Bring to a simmer and let it evaporate off approximately half its volume.
While the sauce is simmering, cook the shrimp. I usually boil them, takes less time than the sauce does to cook.

Saturday, June 14, 2014

Rhubarb Chutney

The CSA this week included 8 stalks of rhubarb. The natural reaction is "What on earth am I supposed to do with this much rhubarb?" So I'm making chutney.


Original recipe here: http://www.marthastewart.com/348836/rhubarb-chutney?czone=food%2Fspring-produce&gallery=275393&slide=284420&center=1009726


8 stalks of rhubarb, chopped
1 tbsp olive oil
1 small onion, chopped
4 cloves garlic, diced
1 tbsp powdered ginger
1 tsp salt
1/2 cup wine
1/4 cup candied strawberries, chopped
1/2 cup sugar


1. Cook onion garlic, salt, and olive oil in a saucepan until the onions are translucent (~5 minutes)
2. Add the wine and strawberries, bring to a boil. Cook for 1 minutes
3. Add the sugar. Stir until it is mixed thoroughly
4. Add the ginger and half the rhubarb, let it cook at a simmer/low boil until the rhubarb disintegrates (~5 minutes)
5. Add the rest of the rhubarb, let it cook until the rhubarb is just starting to get soft (~2 minutes, maybe 2:30).


I might add a little bit less wine than that next time, I had to let it boil off for a bit. Otherwise, eat it hot on bread and cheese. I'll try this with roasted turkey as well tomorrow. But it came out really well.

Friday, May 9, 2014

Rhubarb Chicken

I joined a CSA. (Community-supported agriculture) For the next four weeks, I'm getting a small bag of vegetables and a fruit every thursday, and I'll probably add eggs and cheese next week as well. A small bag means 6 vegetables, an herb, and a fruit. A large would be 9 vegetables, 2 herbs, and 2 fruits.


This week's bag contained a head of broccoli, 2 stalks of rhubarb, a bunch of asparagus, a head of red romaine lettuce, a bag of ruby chard, radishes, parsley, and apples.

Tonight's meal was rhubarb chicken, in order to use up and re-cook the chicken left over from my last round of stock. The original recipe is here: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/chicken-smothered-in-rhubarb-recipe.html



~3/4 of a quart of boiled chicken (from the last time I made stock)
"Essence" - Emeril Lagasse's creole spice mixture, recipe to follow
1/4 cup oil
1/2 cup chicken stock
2 stalks of rhubarb, cut up into 3/4 inch pieces
1 large onion - julienned
2 cloves of garlic
fresh parsley
1 cup white wine


- Heat a pot with oil
- Toss the chicken with the "essence" spice mix
- Put the chicken into the pan, let it fry for a few minutes
- Add the chicken stock. Let it sit for another few minutes
- Add the onions and rhubarb. Stir constantly until the onions are wilted and starting to brown
- Add the white wine, garlic, parsley. Cover the pot and let it sit for 30 minutes on low



"Essence" spice mix with my modifications. Original recipe at the link above.
2.5 tbsp paprika
2 tbsp salt
4 cloves minced garlic (if you're making this ahead of time, use garlic powder, but I didn't have any)
1 tbsp black pepper
1 tbsp cayenne pepper
1 tsp thyme
1 tbsp oregano




I've never cooked with rhubarb before. I do like strawberry rhubarb pie, but I didn't have strawberries and I wanted something savory. This was phenomenal. I served it on a bed of chard and romaine lettuce from the CSA. If I weren't so lazy, I would make some wild rice (I still have some of the pink wild rice left, maybe tomorrow) to go with it. I used an old chardonnay that I had left in the fridge for the wine, and it came out as a really nice salad dressing all on its own. The chicken came apart as I stirred the onions in, so I ended up with a chicken salad. The rhubarb was perfectly mushy by the time it finished cooking. I might try adding apples next time.

Thursday, April 10, 2014

Strawberry - Mint Salad

This one is easy, no cooking involved. And wow. It was a really nice change from a standard garden salad.


1 bunch of fresh mint leaves
1 lb of strawberries (Chopped)
1 package of mushrooms (Chopped) (I'm using baby bellos here)
slivered almonds
A handful or two of spinach
Vidalia onion vinaigrette