The Kitchen Scale

Warning: A really dull looking picture

Whenever I attempt to "get healthy" (my euphemism for losing weight) I tend to get into habits and ruts, sometimes obsessively so. Like right now I start my day with a packet of instant peaches and cream oatmeal. So far I'm still liking it. 

I think that this is what anyone who is trying to "get healthy" does. If something works once then keep doing it until you make yourself ill from the lack of variety, get mind numbingly bored with it, or it stops working. I know that this isn't necessarily healthy with food. Some people end up on diets limiting themselves to only a hand full of foods or on one of those disgusting cleanses (like the maple syrup, water, cayenne, lemon juice whatever) because they drop weight fast... and then can't maintain it so they go back on the cleanse again. And if I hear someone say it's healthy one more time I'm going to squeeze a tube of honey up their nose. And before I get to far into this, yes there are some people who have had doctors recommend cleanses and I am not talking about them. I'm talking about the people who cleanse frequently and obsessively... like an older lady I worked with who was always on a cleanse because she was in denial that she was getting close to 50 and that gravity exists. To her I would like to say, "Subsiding on water with stuff floating around that you found in the back of your cupboard for weeks can not be good for you-electrolytes must get out of whack, all of the stuff in your digestive track gets freaked out, and you aren't consuming enough calories to be able to function. You are in essence starving yourself, yet you claim to feel so good afterward. Well why don't you ask people who are starving due to poverty if they feel all clean and energized or if they would rather have a club sandwich and see which one they pick." (Hint: It will be the one with bacon.) 

Anyway, to get away from that particular rant I'll try to get to the point. Severely limiting what you eat will not help you get healthy (both with and without quotation marks) for the long term. Once you stop your cabbage diet you will gain weight back, and if you only eat a few things then you will most likely be lacking nutrients. I find that what works best for me is to stick with an arsenal of basics for the day to day diet. I have my staples that I can easily turn to without having to put a lot of thought into it- grilled shrimp tacos, vegetable stew and dumplings, rice and stir fry, my lovely instant oatmeal, etc. Well I found a new one, and by God the picture of it looks so boring! (And judging by the picture alone you might think I'm a dirty water cleanse type of person who thinks grazing can pass for a meal, which I think I've made clear I'm not.)

It's actually lettuce wraps. And they are a revelation and a model of simplicity. You in no way need a recipe for the the lettuce wraps, but with the risk of being condescending I'll just tell you what I use: 5-8 big leaves of lettuce, 1 T hummus, 2 T babaganoush (you can even see a little dab of it peeking out from one of the lettuce wraps), and 2.5 oz of boar's head turkey breast. But the options are endless- chicken or tuna salad, ham and cheese with a spicy mustard, roast beef with thousand island dressing or cocktail sauce, sauteed mushrooms, peppers and onions, grilled shrimp... really whatever you want. And the ability and option to change it up is why it is something I know I will be turning to time and time again. It's a basic concept that I can manipulate to be what I want, so hopefully I won't get bored. 

Ethiopian Food: The Sequel

So when I made Ethiopian food a couple weeks ago I had some left over Berbere spice blend and decided to make some tasty mushrooms. (I had also gone to a farmers' market and gotten a pound of shitake mushrooms for $7.00.)

Its a pretty simple recipe. So simple I'm not even going to give you measurements.
Quarter a bunch of mushrooms (remember they shrink)
Chop up some onion
Dice up some garlic
Throw all of that into a moderately heated pan that has been greased with pam or butter (this is such a simple recipe that I really suggest the butter).
Don't mess with it while it caramelizes and cooks, shove it around occasionally, but remember the more you mess with them the less tasty they will be.
A few minutes before they're done add in a splash of vegetable or chicken stock and let it reduce. When you add in the stock add in the berbere spices and a little more paprika if you like the heat. Finish cooking and if you feel so compelled you can add in a handful of grated Parmesan. But that is completely optional.

Leftovers

When I made my soup the other day I had a good deal of leftover chicken. Now I could just cut it up and eat it cold with a little salt, like my mom would. But I have a weakness for chicken salad. The mayonnaise has to be light and almost delicate and I have to have the crunch of celery. I used to have a heavy hand with everything that went into it, making a gloppy mess. Now though, I understand that whole less is more concept (ok, I may not understand it completely. I mean look at my spicy food, but I have respect for it). This chicken salad is a lot like my mom's and is amazing wrapped up in a bit of lavash bread.

Chicken Salad

1 small stalk of celery from the heart of the bunch, sliced
2 tsp. dill relish
1 tsp. yellow mustard
ground black pepper
4 tsp. lite mayo
a dash or so of hot sauce
3 1/2 oz. sliced or shredded chicken

Throw it all together and if you want to stretch it further with no added calories, add in some shredded iceberg lettuce.

Mmm Mmm Good!

For the past week or so I've been feeling a little under the weather. It's one of those icky feelings where you can't really pin point what it is and it's changing daily. So at least there is that added element of suspense. Now, earlier this week the weather changed from sunny to rainy. Now, I love the rain so this is always fine by me. Rain is fantastic cooking weather because when its raining whats better than being in a cozy kitchen chopping vegetables and making something that feels nourishing? Now some of you are probably screaming its summer, whats better than grilling outdoors in beautiful weather?! Well, I don't have a yard to cook in and I don't really grill, so there.

Now, since I was feeling sick and the weather was so beautifully gloomy I thought that nothing would be better than soup. But not just any soup, chicken noodle soup. Now for me the beauty of making soup is the lack of rules and the rustic quality that lends a hearty feeling to soup. Because of these characteristics of soup I am not going to give you any measured quantities, just suggestions. Soup is the hippy of the food world, its free flowing, easy going and all around groovy. It loves everything and resists The Measurement Man.

First I started with a whole chicken in a stock pot that I filled with water, just enough that the chicken is covered. To that I added in a some carrots (1/3 of a bag of baby carrots), celery (3 stalks), an onion, bay leaf, pepper, salt, one clove of garlic, a dash of chili flakes (I can't help myself), and a little bit of vegetable bullion. I let that simmer away until the chicken just kinda fell apart.

Then I let things cools a little and took the chicken out of the broth and tore the chicken off the bones and discarded the skin. I cut up the dark meat and some of the breast to put back into the soup and strained the broth and skimmed the fat off. (If you have the time let the broth chill in the fridge and the fat will harden and it will be super easy to skim off.)

Then I made the soup. I put the broth back into the stock pot and tossed in some carrots, celery, some chicken and a bag of egg noodles. I let that cook and salted it liberally and added in some dill. Dill in chicken noodle soup is amazing! It brightens the entire dish and makes it a little more summer appropriate.

To be honest I was hoping that the day after eating this soup I would wake up cured of all ailments. Alas, I still felt a little icky. But after an afternoon spent in the kitchen I felt like I had gone through a stress detox and ready to go with the flow. So I guess instead of feeling miraculously better I became a bit of a hippy.

Spanish Tortilla... Quiche... Thing

So, I don't really know what it is I made for dinner tonight. About a week or so ago I attempted to make my mom's crustless quiche, without the recipe and lower in calories and fat. It didn't rise the way hers does and it was pretty basic, but still really good. I wanted to find a way to jazz it up though. Tonight while I was browsing the internet for a dinner idea, I stumbled across a recipe for a chorizo and potato Spanish tortilla. This was it! I would apply some of the elements from the tortilla to my quiche and make a bastardized tortilla... quiche... thing.

In this photo(taken seconds after the tortilla/quiche came out of the oven) you can see the turkey pepperoni I used as a healthier alternative to chorizo, peeking out from under the potatoes.

Spanish tortillas are not like the tortillas you would find in Mexico, these are a fun egg and potato dish. Something Babyface  would love!

Potato and Turkey Pepperoni Tortilla

4 egg whites

1 T. fat free sour cream

dash of chili flakes

dash of salt (be careful because the feta is going to add a lot of salt)

1 T. flour

1 oz. fat free feta

1 oz. or 15 slices of turkey pepperoni (cut the slices into quarters)

3-4 slices of onion (or about one handful or 2 oz.)

2 crimini mushrooms, sliced

2 oz. of potatoes, sliced (somewhere between medium and thinly sliced)

1. Spray a medium sized pan with pam and heat over medium heat. Add the potatoes on one side and the mushrooms and onions on the other. Don't move them around too much at first because you want them to brown up a little. And let cook for about 5-10 minutes. So that the onions and mushrooms have caramelized and the potatoes have browned.

2. While everything is going on in the pan combine the first 5 ingredients and combine well. Add the feta and pepperoni.

3. When the  onions and mushrooms are cooked add them to the egg mixture.

4. Pour the egg mixture into a pam-ed baking dish. (I have a lovely oven proof, ceramic dish that is a hybrid between a bowl and a plate.) Top with the potato slices and bake in an oven preheated to 350.

5.Bake until it has risen slightly and is firm-ish to the touch and bounces back. (My oven's temperature was all over the place and took about 20 minutes as it went from 200 to 400 degrees. I would suggest checking after 15 minutes.) Let cool for about 5 minutes and then enjoy!

 

 

Healthful Spices Continued

Slowly, but surely, I am making my way through the list of   healthful spices and decided to make Turmeric spiced potatoes. Potatoes are one of those foods that I rarely have in my apartment and often slips my mind, but every other month I remember how great potatoes are and buy a small bag full to slowly work through.

My new favorite way to eat potatoes is to slice them up and bake them in the oven and season with Cajun spices. I used to dislike potatoes cooked this way, I don't know why to be honest. I think I used to just wanted them fried or mashed. And, I also went through my skillet home fries stage, which I think everyone should go through at some point.

Skillet home fries have served me well and for this recipe I went back to what I had considered to be the tried and trued skillet method. The method it self is great, alternating browning the potatoes and steaming them to help cook faster. The seasoning is where I have had problems in the past. The most memorable seasoning fiasco was after Senior Ball. Some of my friends and I headed back to my house and decided to have a midnight breakfast. One of my best friends, who I shall call Babyface, loves potatoes and eggs. I'm pretty sure Babyface would be happy eating nothing but potatoes and eggs. So we decided to skip pancakes and have potatoes and eggs. I was tired from dancing and the regular Prom stress (so not worth it) and got really carried away with the spices and ended up with the spiciest potatoes ever, they were like fire in potato form. We had to cover them in ketchup to make them slightly tolerable.

The seasoning this time around was a little problematic too. I think I got a little too turmeric happy. It didn't taste like too much turmeric, since turmeric is really subtle. But, I think that there was just a little too much powdery, spice-ness that gave the potatoes a dry feeling which I am attributing to my turmeric quantities. So I have lightened up the turmeric quantity a little in the recipe I am going to share with you.

Turmeric curry spiced potatoes.

Turmeric Curry Spiced Potatoes
The measurements here are just guidelines, feel free to adjust to what you like. And don't be afraid of the raisins, they add a sweet (almost cooling effect) to this potato dish.

1 handful of chopped white onion
1 russet potato, chopped
1/2 tsp. turmeric
1/8 tsp. garlic powder
1/2 tsp. garam marsala
1/2 tsp. curry powder
salt to taste
sprinkle cayenne, also to taste depending on how spicy you want it
small handful of raisins

1. Spray a nonstick pan (that has a lid that will fit on it) with Pam and heat it over medium. Add the onion and potato. Don't move it around too much, but don't let it stick- you want everything to brown, but you don't want it to stick to the pan. Let cook for about five minutes, stirring occasionally.

2. Cover and let cook for 3-5 minute intervals stirring the potato mixture in between intervals. The hope here is to brown the parts that are against the pan, but not let it burn. This can take anywhere from 10-15 additional minutes. Check for doneness by piercing a piece of potato with a fork.

3. Once cooked toss in the spices and raisins to coat the potatoes.

Fast Food II: Cous Cous

There is this take out place I enjoy where they sell fresh pastas and have a deli case full of pasta dishes, meat dishes and some sides. The food there is good, if not a little heavy for my taste (I prefer marinara to cream sauces). And my new favorite thing that they have started serving is an Italian Summer Couscous. This is my attempt to make my own version and I have changed some of the elements, like less oil and added fresh basil.

It also comes together really fast, if you are really organized then it can be thrown together in about 7 minutes. If you're not (and most of the time I'm not) it will take a bit longer, but not by much. This is also great warm or chilled, and I take it to work on the days when I need a lunch.

My Summer Couscous studded with tomatoes, feta, and green onions. With flecks of black pepper, parsley, and basil.

My Summer Couscous
These are more guidelines than exact rules, so please take her any liberties you feel necessary.This also makes about 4 cups of couscous.

1 cup plain, uncooked couscous
1 cup water
2-3 green onions, white and light green bits, sliced
1 Roma tomato chopped (try to keep it seed and juice free)
juice from about one lemon
2 T. finely chopped fresh parsley
about 6 basil leaves, julienne them or tear them
2 tsp. chicken Worcestershire sauce
2 tsp. oil (extra virgin olive oil, or you can even use canola)
3 oz. reduced fat or fat free feta (trust me you won't miss the fat)
sprinkle of garlic powder (use a light hand)
hot sauce to taste
salt and pepper to taste (keep in mind the feta will add a good deal of salt)

1. Bring the water to a boil in a pot with a lid. Add the couscous and stir briefly. Take it off the heat and put the lid on and let it sit for 5 minutes.

2. While the couscous cooks prepare the rest of the ingredients in a bowl and mix to combine.

3. Fluff the couscous with a fork before adding in the rest of the ingredients. And continue to fluff until everything is combined.

Living up to my Promise

So, I told y'all that I would feature each of the 5 healthy spices sometime this week. If you don't remember what I am talking about , then I don't blame you. It was a while ago.

So the first spice I want to share with you is one of my go-to spices as of late- cumin. I don't know what it is I like so much about cumin. I think I like it so much because it lends a smoky flavor that compliments the spicy food that I tend to make. But have no fear, this recipe doesn't pack a lot of heat, but does pack a lot of flavor.

Cumin spiced turkey burger, fresh off the George Foreman Grill.

Cumin Spiced Turkey Burger
This is enough to make one giant burger or two pretty small ones.

1/4 lb. ground turkey (white meat)
1/3 cup chopped onion
2 mushrooms (button or cremini) chopped fairly finely
3 Tablespoons bread crumbs
1 tsp. ground cumin
2 tsp. Worcestershire sauce
1 tsp. chicken Worcestershire sauce
hot sauce (however much you like, for once I tend to keep it on the light side)
a pinch of salt (or about 1/8th tsp)
2 tsp. fresh parsley minced (this is completely optional, I just had fresh parsley in my fridge that I needed to use)

Incorporate all the ingredients together and form into a patty. Cook however you please, you can broil it, grill it, pan fry it, or put it on your George Foreman Grill. Unfortunately if you use any method other than the George Foreman Grill method I can't really help you figure out how long to cook your burger, if you are using a George Foreman Grill it will be about 5 minutes. Regardless this is a turkey burger so cook until done.

Now I am not going to tell you how to serve it because it is a burger after all. I will confess something that may repulse you though.I like to eat my burger on a salad, that has been dressed with condiments that I would put on my burger if it was a sandwich. I make a thousand island like sauce with a little bit of lite mayo, mustard, ketchup and relish and toss my greens in that and reserve a little for on top of the burger.

Craving- In cookie form

Follow me on my initial attempt to squelch my baking craving.

It started innocently enough. I decided to bake sugar cookies and then pawn them off on beloved friends and family. And I would get to decorate cookies with one of my dear friends before she abandons me for another country. I flipped through my stained personal cook book full of go to recipes looking for a sugar cookie recipe. Oddly enough I have none. I have lemon, molasses, lavender ginger, chocolate chip, chocolate with nuts and a few others. But no sugar cookie recipe! How could I lack one of the most basic cookie recipes?! The shame! The shame!

So I did what any other person would do. I Googled it. And I also did what any foodie would do and checked out www.epicurious.com and www.foodnetwork.com (one day I will figure out links). I was flooded with delicious-looking cookie recipes. I didn't want one with a long chill time because I'm impatient and an hour is the most I could stand (this was a serious baking craving). So that got rid of half of them. And I kept looking and for some reason I am really averse to vegetable shortening. I know it makes a tender flakey crust, and I prefer it in pie crusts. But I want my sugar cookies to be buttery tasting. This requirement did two things, severely cut down my options and made me realize that when it comes to cookies I am high maintenance.

I looked through the recipes and none caught my eye. When suddenly I had a flash back. It's last Thanksgiving and I am at my brother's house, freezing because we had the back door slightly ajar so that we would cool our cookies and cookie sheets faster. We were making amazing sugar cookies that we later decorated with glee (it was approaching the holiday season so words such as glee were appropriate). Some were delicate and beautiful and some looked like Liberace exploded onto a cookie, but they all tasted amazing. Where had he found that recipe? I did another Google search and there it was in joyofbaking.com. And these cookies were joyful indeed! Fa-la-la-la-la-la-la!

I won't bother to post the recipe because so many people have their own favorite sugar cookie recipes, or can go to the site themselves if they are in the market for one. I will tell you though that in addition to the vanilla extract I added a little less than one tablespoon of dark rum and about half the zest from a lemon.

Let your inner Picasso or Monet shine when you decorate sugar cookies!

My friend and I used royal icing and silver dragees. It was so much fun- laughing, decorating, spilling frosting into her purse, eating cookies (there was some moderation), and going crazy with the dragees. Everything cookie decorating should be. But soon she had to leave to go see other people before she would leave to go to her other country. I was in great pain, not only because I would miss her. But also because dragees were (and still are) all over my floor. It looks like a Mardi Gras necklace broke in a mad scramble by drunken partiers, all over my floor. But a tiny Mardi Gras necklace. So tiny you can't see all of the beads unless the light hits them just so. However, they are large enough that stepping on them hurts! My dining room is like a land mine of tiny, silver decorations.

Beautiful, yet dangerous, silver dragees.

We did not bake all the cookies since my home was warming up, so I decided to have fun with them the next day. Some of them I jabbed chocolate chips into. And others got coconut sprinkled on them. But my favorite is the cinnamon roll cookies. It's incredibly simple to do. Roll out your chilled dough a little thinner than you would for cut-out cookies and sprinkle a handful of raisins, a sprinkling of cinnamon and a sprinkling of brown sugar. Roll up. Wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge or freezer if you aren't going to use them soon. Cut them up and bake. Depending on the size of the rolls it may take 8-15 minutes.

Mmm... Cinnamon Raisin Roll cookies!

You would think that this would end my craving. Alas, it didn't. So tomorrow (or the day after) I will make a cake. It’s the next step, obviously.

Fairytale Pasta Salad

Once upon a time, a young woman with a food blog went to her local Farmers' Market. She enjoyed all of the wonderful produce and deep in the forest of food booths she stumbled upon sea beans and fiddlehead ferns from the land of Found and Foraged. Ever since then she developed a compulsion to drop by his little booth first. It's exciting and new and foraged! And this week along with little bags of mushrooms (the cooking kind, it’s not that kind of market... except this all could explain the new found and foraged compulsion...) there were sea beans and morel mushrooms. As far as she was concerned morel mushrooms have always been one of those elusive food fairy tales. On the pedestal of other exotic and hard to find ingredients (or rather expensive ingredients if you will), like foie gras or geoduck. She knew that they are out there, but on her student budget she rarely encounters them. She has had foie gras at the Culinary Institute of America (CIA) Greystone, she liked it and it was pretty much what she had imagined. And she has been fortunate to have some of these food fairy tales come true. She has had truffles, beef carpaccio (in Italy no less), Jacques Torres chocolates, several dining experiences at Chez Panisse, and she ate at Buchon once. All in all she was very fortunate to have had so many gastronomical adventures so young. Despite her good fortune, she was not satisfied. She would hear of people traveling and eating crazy things and would immediately become jealous. She likes to push my food boundaries and have them pushed, so she tends to jump in and hope everything figures itself out. And that’s what she did with the morel mushrooms, noting that the sign next to the basket of mushrooms suggest pairing them with fava beans and smoked salmon. She was now on a mission to procure these items and a few other things on her list.

    After a little less than an hour in the market (she can be a very talkative lass) there were only a few more things on her list when she spotted a free sample. A free sample to a college student is like a moth to a flame- it's irresistible. So she tried a sample of canned tuna thinking she would smile, make the obligatory "what a delightful sample! I will think about it" face. However, this tuna was amazing. She didn't know what made it so good, until the Captain told her. It was cold-canned tuna. This deserves further explanation- the tuna is put in a can raw and then cooked in the can! No added water, oil, or heaven forbid chicken broth. Just tuna. And its hand filleted tuna. And wait it gets better yet! It is caught through a sustainable method (trolling) and is young which means it is low in mercury and high in omega three fatty acids! And it can be yours for three easy payments of $3.99. Forgive the sudden lapse into an advertisement, it really is amazing though.  And now she was at a crossroad. She had a hard decision to make. Should she pair her mushrooms with the smoked salmon or this really amazing tuna?

A really light pasta dish. The bready looking brown bits are the morel mushrooms.

Spring Pasta Salad
Feel free to use smoked salmon instead of tuna, just make sure to add a couple more tablespoons of stock. Also, it is great as leftovers, but be prepared for some slightly soggy mushrooms.
Morel Mushrooms (I did not measure, you'll find this to be my biggest fault, I would say there was roughly 1/2 c. to 3/4 of a cup of mushrooms)
Fava Beans (Yup, again with the not measuring... about 1/3 of a cup once shelled)
3 1/2 oz. can of cold-canned tuna, flaked (you could use any canned tuna but please investigate cold-canned tuna)
1 clove of garlic, minced
2 green onions, sliced
1 small tomato (heirloom if you can), chopped
1 small handful of grated parmesan (and or feta)
Lemon juice from 1/2-1 lemon (to taste)
1/2 c. vegetable stock, divided
1 T. extra virgin olive oil
1/2 box of pasta, cooked until just al dente (anything with ridges or places for sauce to hide)
1. First clean the mushrooms. How is still not quite clear to me. I researched online and I found a method that worked pretty well for me- rinse under cold water and toss into a bowl of cold, lightly salted water. I stored them there until I was done hand rinsing all the mushrooms and then dried them off and cut them into bite sized pieces. Then sauté in a pan sprayed with Pam. A lot of liquid will be released rather quickly. Transfer the mushrooms to a bowl.
1.5. Go out to get medicine for an ailing family member, but instead of buying the medicine trade the money your mother worked so hard for for some magic fava beans. Yes, people will ridicule you, but they are magic!
2. Clean out sauté pan and then spray with Pam. Heat over medium and add in garlic. Make sure you don't burn the garlic, just let it become fragrant and then add 1/4 cup of vegetable stock. Add the shelled fava beans. Cook until the tough outer skin pops. Let cool slightly and remove the skin from the fava beans. Keep the shelled, skinless fava beans in the cooking liquid.
2.5. Clean your step sisters' rooms while they gossip about last night's ball. If only they knew that you were that girl dancing with the royalty formally known as the prince (disownment is such a messy issue)! Yeah, he might have once been royalty, but he's too short anyway. And whatever you do, don't mourn the loss of your glass slipper; it was glass which is so impractical anyways!
3. To the fava beans add the juice from half a lemon, salt, pepper, remaining stock, olive oil, green onion, and tomato. Toss the pasta with this mixture.
3.5 Wake up (after eating that apple the old lady- who looks a lot like your stepmother- gave you) to find your Prince Charming staring dreamily into your eyes, and don't worry too much about your morning breath. He understands.
4. Add to the pasta mixture the tuna (I used 1/2 of the juice from the can, it too is amazing), morels, and parmesan. Toss to incorporate and enjoy warm.
And of course live happily ever after.